The ship is viewed from before the starboard beam, with the lower masts standing. There is also a separate clarifying sketch of the beakhead bulkhead. On the broadside it carries eleven guns each on the gun deck and upper deck and four on the quarterdeck. There is no figurehead, the head being cut off square a few feet from the end. Robinson identifies the structure between the fore and main masts as an awning, but while it may have given shade it is apparently a solid, flat platform also capable of supporting weight. Two figures among several beneath it clearly wear European hats.

The drawing was possibly made for a painting of a Mediterranean action, of which one of the action in Bugia Bay (8-18May 1671) in the Royal Collection includes an Algerine ship with the same head. This looks as though drawn from the life; however, while the ship has unusual features, it may be an English one.