Willem van de Velde the Elder was a master draughtsman whose numerous pen drawings of the Dutch fleet were in high demand during his lifetime. The admiralty repeatedly requested that he accompany the fleet to create a visual record of its actions. Van de Velde combined a solid grasp of the complex movements of ships in the midst of battle with such unerring accuracy that historians have been able to identify many of the individual ships and specific sea battles that he depicted over the course of his prolific career.

Aside from being renowned as a draughtsman, Van de Velde pioneered a new technique in the early 1650s called pen painting (penschilderij), which he used to create this work. Finished pen paintings, usually executed on panel but also on canvas, resemble elaborately worked-out, detailed pen drawings made on paper. Much more durable than a drawing on paper, however, a pen painting could be framed for hanging, and the conceit that the artist had created a painting that looked like a drawing further enhanced its appeal. In this pen painting, several large ships flying Dutch flags are at anchor in choppy waters near a broad, sandy beach, while travelers (or crew members) are making their way from the shore to the ships in wooden rowboats.

The international prestige of the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century was based on its global dominance in maritime trade and transport. Advanced technology, skilled sailors, and a government that promoted commerce had turned the Dutch merchant fleet into an economic engine and the nation’s navy into the efficient protector of that engine. The booming economy generated a level of wealth that turned this period into the country’s Golden Age. A modern shipbuilding industry produced efficient vessels that could carry much cargo yet required smaller crews compared to the boats built by the country’s chief competitors, particularly Spain, England, and Sweden. Dutch ships fished the waters of the North Sea and carried cargo to and from the Baltic region, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic coastline of Europe. Large merchant ships came back from the Far East and West Indies loaded with exotic commodities.