The ‘Swiftsure’, viewed from slightly before the starboard beam. Her rail shows signs of damage. She was taken by the Dutch at the Four Days’ Battle in 1666 and added to their navy as the ‘Oudshoorn’.

The drawing is inscribed ‘de swifsieure / bij [? legen] vewallen’ (The damaged ‘Swiftsure’). It is one of the drawings used by van de Velde the Younger for the painting of the captured English ships in Dutch waters after the Four Days’ Battle. (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Inv. No. A439).

This is an unsigned offset and pencil work by the Elder, which has been rubbed on the back. One of the sketches used for the painting of the ‘Swiftsure’ and other captured ships brought into the Wielings after the Four Days’ Battle, 1666, of which there is a version in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2471).