The ‘Fazant’ was built in 1646 and chartered to Denmark in 1666-7. She was obsolete by 1686.

There are two drawings of the ‘Fazant’ in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam. One is viewed from the port quarter in reverse (MB.1866/T.270) and one is from before the port beam (MB.1866/T.271). M. S. Robinson (‘Van de Velde drawings: a catalogue of drawings in the National Maritime Museum… ’, Vol. I, p.36) describes the Greenwich drawing as: “Probably based on an offset but not in reverse”. The Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum consider that their drawing MB.1866/T.270 is an “Offset from an unknown original” and that the Greenwich drawing “may have been offset from this offset” (‘The Willem van de Velde drawings in the Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam’, Vol. I, p.95). They describe the decoration on the counter of the ‘Fazant’ as two shields: the arms of Holland (a lion rampant, in reverse, unlike the Greenwich drawing) and crossed anchors, which Robinson identifies on the NMM drawing as the arms “for the Admiralty of Amsterdam”. Above, on the tafferel, is a pheasant between two round ports; and on the rail above that the arms of Amsterdam with cherubs as supporters, each with a hand on an anchor. Boijmans date their drawing as possibly done in 1665.

This is one of three drawings – the others being portraits of the Dutch warships ‘Hilversum’, 62 guns (PAH3826), and the ‘Jaarsveld’, 48 guns (PAH3827) – on the same paper as one apparently made in 1648-49 (the Royalist second-rate ‘Constant Reformation’, PAI7253), though possibly the latter was redrawn some years later from a sketch made on the spot. All three are dated “1655?” by Robinson, although he conceded that an earlier date would better fit their style, particularly that of PAH3827, with its large correction in the waterline at the stern, so characteristic of the earliest work; but the dates the first two ships were built (see their catalogue entries) seem to preclude this possibility. This one is accurately drawn and, given the ‘Fazant’’s earlier launch date, is more likely than the other two in the set to have been made in 1648-49.