A heavily damaged impression of many boats at sea, consisting of five galleys, two fustas, a carrack, an unidentified four-masted ship (possibly a galleon or warship), and several small rowing boats; all are filled with figures. The galley at the bottom depicts a dramatic scene of figures unfurling the sails; above the crow’s nest is a flag with a cross. To the right of this galley is a duck. Another galley in the upper left has a decorative panel on the side of its stern depicting three figures, possibly of the Roman deities, Mars, Cupid, and Venus. In the upper centre-right of the image are a shoal of dolphins. The top right corner is dated 1539 with a Dürer-style monogram ‘AD’; this is misleading as the monogram would originally have borne the initials ‘AB’, as seen in the British Museum’s excellent impression of the same engraving (1974,0406.12), attributed to the Monogrammist AB. This scene may represent the Battle of Preveza in 1538.
The NMM impression is badly damaged and bears the products of an attempted repair. Two almost parallel linear stains pass through the image diagonally, possibly from an acidic, adhesive substance used to flatten and fix the engraving to its backing. Several losses to the image have been retouched using pen. In particular, the loss to the bottom-half of the monogram has provided an advantageous opportunity for the repairer to convert the original ‘AB’ to ‘AD’; the ‘A’ has been shortened and finished with appropriate serifs, and the remaining top half of the ‘B’ has been finished into a ‘D’ with a serif at the bottom. Nearby, towards the left of the altered monogram, are parallel lines in pen denoting clouds which are in fact non-existent in the BM impression.