This painting, previously described as 'An English first rate, about 1670' has now (December 2015) been identified as showing separate broadside and stern views of the second-rate 'Royal Katherine', built in 1664 as a three-decked ship with only two complete tiers of gunports, her armament being variably stated as 76-84 guns. In February 1673 orders were issued to Chatham Dockyard that her sides be raised in the waist to accommodate a full third tier of guns, and a forecastle was added. The ship was then able to carry 100 guns - the armament of a first rate - as shown in fleet lists for later 1673. She was afterwards reduced in the 1680s to 84-86 guns until rebuilt at Portsmouth in 1702/3 as a 90-gun ship. In 1706 she was renamed 'Ramillies' and, after subsequent rebuilding her long active career only ended when she was wrecked in 1760. This re-identification, kindly provided by Frank Fox, is based on another painting of the ship by H. Vale (BHC3606), also in the Museum collection, and a drawing of her in her original appearance by Willem van de Velde the Elder (private collection). The gunport arrangement, a unique pattern of 13 upper,14 middle and 13 lower ports, with the extra middle-deck port in the quarter-gallery, agrees well with the other known portraits of the ship but with no other vessel. The style of the picture suggests it may be a copy from a better artist than Sailmaker such as van de Velde, though not from a known example.