Something to take into consideration is how far away Troy is in the background. Being further back in space, you might want to look at de saturating/ bringing down the contrast in your values from the smoke versus the clouds. If there is a high level of contrast (very dark versus very light) that might also draw unwanted away from your ship. There is a lot of mid tone values over all in this composition between your smoke and your clouds that at the moment makes it hard to separate the focal points and layers (foreground, mid-ground, background) of your piece. You are heading in an awesome direction with the flag, where that is a great area to add emphasis and more contrast. Adding further details (like the paneling on the boat and symbol on the flag) versus the buildings will also help push it to the front as your main narrative element.
