The drawing shows a ships boat being rowed in the foreground, beyond her a States yacht, beyond which is a ship under way. On the right there is a bezan yacht at anchor. The four craft are drawn feintly in graphite, but the boat and the States yacht are strengthened with pen and ink.

The drawing is signed lower left 'W.V.V. J.', and in the lower right corner '2d' which may or not suggest that it is one of a series of instructional drawings. Robinson suggests that the signature is earlier than 1685.