One of a group of drawings of the Four Day’s battle at which van de Velde the Elder was present in a galjoot put at his disposal by de Ruyter who commanded the Dutch fleet at the battle. He made a large series of drawings most of which are in the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam. It seems likely that the Younger was with him, as there are several drawings by him in the NMM’s collection, including this one, which appear to have been drawn during the battle.

This distant view of the fleets is annotated with the names of some of the ships and commanders for van de Velde’s later reference. An inscription on the back of the mount states that the drawing belonged to the marine painters Dominic Serres and to his son John Thomas Serres.

The drawing is signed 'W.V.V.J.' and there is an inscription on the reverse '… dach den 12 Junij 1666'.