In this series, Pascal depicted a complex relationship between death and life. We can see this ambivalence as the tiny, crowded boats in an overwhelming sea. The white of the foam heads and the light rays that contrast the dark evoke this ambiguity.

Man as the toy of life, over-delivered to the unpredictable waves of a rough sea. The ship and the sea, metaphors for man and existence, already widely used in the 16th and 17th century and even more existential in the work from 19th century artists such as William Turner and Théodore Géricault whose impressive work The Raft of the Medusa (1819) left the pitiful fate of denounced persons on board.