The ‘Rotterdam’, viewed from before the port beam with topsails and mizzen loosed, and the fore and main courses loosed in the brails. The tafferel is a plain oval.

The inscription, ‘…rdam vant/…van Rotterdam’ on the front has been partly cut off. On the reverse in brown ink is the inscription, ‘No 3 begonne schip’, in a contemporary hand possibly, according to Robinson, by Adriaan van de Velde. Adriaan was the son of Adriaan, the younger brother of Willem van de Velde the Younger, and a landscape painter. Robinson suggests that he may have made some of the drawings, as Willem van de Velde the Elder may have brought him to England following his father’s death in 1672.

This is an unsigned offset with pencil, by the Elder, that has not been rubbed on the back. It is from a careful and accurate original. The hull is unworked with pencil, but the sails loosed for drying have been put in with thick bold pencil. The work has been approximately dated by the watermark.

In the Boymans Museum, Rotterdam, there is a drawing of a ship (322) viewed from the port quarter, inscribed ‘nieuw rotterdam’ which is probably the 52-gun ship built circa 1658.