A port-bow view of about fifteen ships, most of them flutes (fluyts), running out from a narrow fjord under topsails, with rocks on either side. The leading vesel is a flute but closely followed by a ship with a flag at the main, which may be the commodore. The artist's pencil inscription, top left, reads 'no 2 vleckeren en de schepen uijt komen' (No. 2 Vlecher and the ships coming out). This is probably Flekker, 35 miles east of the Naze on the southern coast of Norway. The particular incident is unidentified. It may be a drawing of something before 1641 done to illustrate one of 'severall Campagnes of ye old Prices of Orange' (PRO, Kew; State Papers 29, 400). However, van de Velde may have seen such sights often on voyages to the Norwegian coast.

The drawing is signed and dated 'WVV1641', in pencil, and bears the ink inscription 'by Vanderveldt' at the top in an 18th century hand.