Calm: an English two-decker with sails loosed firing a salute

To the left a two-decker ship is shown coming to anchor in a very light breeze. She has a red flag at the mizzen indicating a Rear-Admiral of the Red, and flies a common pendant below a vane at the main. She is firing her guns in salute. There are many men in the starboard rigging presumably going aloft to furl the sails. A ship’s barge in the right foreground pulls away from the ship to the right, with another barge pulling away to the right of her. There is a three-decker at anchor with a blue flag at the main in the right background. She is a second-rate ship probably built as part of the ship building programme of 1677. There are boats around her stern and other ships under sail in the background and in the distance. The painting is signed and dated ‘W V V d oude f 1682’.

Object Details

ID: BHC0868
Collection: Fine art
Type: Painting
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Velde, Willem van de, the Elder
Date made: 1682
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Ingram Collection
Measurements: Frame: 1000 mm x 1200 mm x 125 mm;Painting: 710 x 915 mm