This may be a sketch for an intended painting. In the years around 1700 van de Velde and his studio produced a large number of highly dramatic paintings of ships being wrecked on a rocky coast or in peril in rough seas, a subject which had attracted Dutch marine painters from the nearly part of the 17th century, as well as their followers in England in the early part of the 18th century. In this drawing the main ship is riding to an anchor in a very heavy sea, and two other ships in a similar predicament can be seen beyond. The drawing is unsigned.