This work depicts two horizon views above one another. The lower one shows, on the left, some fishing vessels lying off the shore with the village of Marken ('marcken') beyond. The town of Edam ('edam') is in the centre distance. The distant views of Dutcn towns or villages in the upper profile are not identified.

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.