Mordaunt is depicted from the starboard stern quarter under sail with a following wind. Several figures can be seen on the deck.

As the back of the paper is rubbed the drawing may be an offset from another - a process frequently used by Van de Velde as a means of replicating the details of a ship's hull. While the hull itself is carefully drawn the sails and rigging are vigorously drawn with untypical flourish.

The Mordaunt was bought for the navy from Lord Mordaunt in 1683, and wrecked ten years later. The pendant flying from the main mast suggests that when the drawing was made she was already a naval ship and therefore a date of 1683 or later is likely. It was probably made as a preparatory study for an oil painting now in a private collection commissioned to mark the entry of the Mordaunt into the Royal Navy.

There is a model of the Mordaunt in the National Maritime Museum collection (SLR0004), which was identified by the Mordaunt family coat of arms at the break of the poop and confirmed by comparison with the Willem van de Velde drawings.