In the centre there is a village beyond a low point and in the foreground a bay with two boats lying near the shore. To the right, close to the point, there are outlines of two further craft.

The paper was once the bottom of a larger sheet, now divided horizontally. The reverse bears, on the left, a port-bow view of a smalschip; in the centre, a starboard-quarter view of a flute; and on the right two ships in starboard-quarter view. All these vessels are under sail, the sails and masts being on the verso of the upper half of the sheet, which is now PAE5162. Both halves are parts 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.