In the dunes on the left stands a small tower, and behind the dunes a village with a church spire. On the right is a light wooden staging or jetty over the water ending in a small tower. One boat floats in the right foreground; another is either drawn up or abandoned on the beach. A dark line of timbers in the water may either be pilings or possibly the ribs of an abandoned wreck.

This work is one of a group of twelve drawings of shore scenes or distant views of the Dutch coastline in pen and brown ink (PAE5158, PAE5159, PAE5160, PAE5161, PAE5162, PAE5163, PAE5164, PAE5165, PAE5166, PAE5167, PAE5168, PAE5169). It is likely from the appearance of the ships in all these works that they were made in the 1650s. They were probably done in connection with the elder van de Velde's earliest pen-paintings, since he probably did not need such sketches later, and had passed as by several different artists until re-attributed by Sir Bruce Ingram.