A portrait, viewed from slightly before the port beam, of the English first-rate ship ‘St Michael’, 90 guns; built in 1669, renamed ‘Marlborough’ in 1706 and rebuilt 1708. The drawing shows in detail the wreathed ports and the decoration of the bow, with a figurehead in the form of a bird drawing Neptune in a chariot. It is probably not based on an offset, but carefully drawn in pencil and wash, in the manner of Van de Velde the Younger, with the figurehead and quarter galleries lightly put in. Separate studies of these were made by the Younger (PAF6607, PAF6608), the superior treatment of which leads Robinson to attribute this drawing of the ship to the Elder. The damaged figurehead has been clumsily drawn in by a later hand.