Marine painter and ship portraitist Warren Sheppard was himself an avid sailor and part of the team that won the 1906 Lipton Cup for a yacht race from New York to Bermuda. He also illustrated books on sailing, including Hints to Young Yacht Skippers in 1904, as well as publishing his own volume Practical Navigation in 1920. Born in Greenwich, New Jersey--about twenty miles east of Allentown, Pennsylvania--Sheppard trained briefly at the Cooper Union in New York with marine painter Mauritz de Haas (1832-1895) before spending five years abroad in Paris and Venice, 1888-93. He spent much of his later career in Brooklyn, New York.

Antrim Coastline depicts a rescue on the North Channel (also known as the Straits of Moyle), the passage between the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea at the northern tip of Ireland. Sheppard may have visited the region during an "ocean voyage" he undertook in 1901, the same year as this painting, that was reported in the journal Brush and Pencil. A lifeboat pulls through the high waves toward the foundering ship at the left, its flag inverted in distress and its crew climbing the rigging to await rescue. In contrast, the clipper ship at the right rides high, its pristine sails full and sturdy.