One of a series of drawings made by van de Velde the Elder while accompanying the Dutch fleet under Jacob van Wassenaer on the expedition into Danish waters when Holland supported the Danish cause against Sweden. This resulted in the defeat of the Danish fleet under Admiral Wrangel at the battle of the Sound, which was to be the subject a number of pen paintings drawn by van de Velde, including one now in the NMM’s collection (BHC0280), and another commissioned by Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the Pitti Palace, Florence.

The drawing shows the fleet in the morning, drawn from astern as it stood in to the land in blustery weather. In the centre foreground a private ship of the centre jisquadron is shown stern view. She is probably the ‘Stavoren’. In the left middle distance, with flag and pendant at the main and a pendant at the mizzen peak is van Wassenaer’ flagship, the ‘Eendracht’. In common with a number of van de Velde drawings in the collection this drawing has been embellished by the amateur artist Charles Gore (1729-1807).