The ‘Middelburg’, viewed from the starboard quarter. The fore and main topsails, driver and mainsail are loosed. There is a flag and pendant at the fore. On the tafferel (the upper part of a vessel’s stern) are the arms of Zeeland on a round shield, crowned and supported by two savages, with their legs crossed, holding clubs. Above are crossed anchors and a castle for Middelburg, and between the slingerlijsts (moulding across the stern of a Dutch ship below the tafferel), a pitcher for Vlissingen (Flushing).

The drawing is inscribed on the reverse in a late hand ‘Wapen van middelburg’. However, there is also a cut inscription in van de Velde’s hand ‘…gen’, and the drawing may actually depict the ‘Vlissigen’, which in September 1664 wore the flag of Vice-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen.

This is an unsigned faint offset, by the Elder, worked up with pencil. It has been damaged by rubbing of the surface, giving the pencil-work the appearance of being an offset. It has been approximately dated to 1664-65 by the watermark.