The "SS WILHELM BEHRENS" was built in 1897 at the Neptun shipyard in Rostock. Until 1914, the steamer was owned by the Heinrich Podeus shipping company and the F.W. Fischer steamship shipping company. The Warnemünde captain Heinrich Harder sailed on the "SS WILHELM BEHRENS" and commissioned the painting from the Dutch painter Teen G. G. Fenenga in 1902.
On 8 May 1914, the ship is said to have been taken into British possession by the "HMS GRAFTON" and then sailed as the "SS MAUDE LARSSEN" in the service of Alfred Calvert Shipping Ltd, Goole (England). On 27 November 1916, it was sunk in the Mediterranean by the German submarine U-63 while travelling from Bagnoli (Italy) to Seville (Spain).
