An Indiaman engaged by three Spanish privateers

In the centre of this crowded, if lightly drawn scene is a starboard bow view of a ship, presumably an Indiaman, surrounded and engaged by three small Spanish privateers, each flying the Burgundian flag. The overlaying of sails and masts conveys effectively the slow-paced violence of such encounters, an aspect of life at sea that the artist explored at length in his full-scale oil paintings.