Scene 1 takes place on a ship on the sea during a storm. Gonzalo tries to reassure his fellow travelers, Antonio and Sebastian, explaining that they need to reach the stillness in the center of the storm to find relief. They notice a commotion on the deck of the ship, where the Captain warns the Boatswain of a nearby island.

Alonso, the king of Naples, approaches the group, and the Boatswain advises the gentlemen to go back to their cabins; at first, he makes the request calmly, but when the men resist, he employs an aggressive tone. Gonzalo introduces the gentlemen to the Boatswain, but the Boatswain is unimpressed by their titles, asserting that the true king to whom they must submit is the wind. The gentlemen find the Boatswain disrespectful, but Gonzalo admits that the man “lacks neither courage nor wit” (11). The Boatswain orders them below deck as thunder and lightning crack. Gonzalo marvels at the appearance of the storm, observing a kind of magic in the lightning that sets it apart from the lightning he has seen in Europe.