The Four Days’ Battle: the Dutch fleet lying-by probably on the fourth day, 4 [OS]/14 June 1666 when De Ruyter called a council-of-war. On the right is a starboard bow view of a ship with flag at the main and flag and pendant at the mizzen; this is Cornelis Tromp who transferred his flag into Rear-Admiral Sweers’s ship the ‘Gouda’, when his own ship was damaged. In the foreground is a starboard broadside view of a galjoot with her mainsail brailed. In the centre is a bow view of a ship in the wind, and in the background to the left is the commander-in-chief, De Ruyter in the ‘Zeven Provincien’, surrounded by boats, galjoots and ships.

Van de Velde the Elder was present at the battle in a galjoot put at his disposal by De Ruyter. 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 such as PAF6854 and PAF6855, which have every appearance of having been drawn during the battle.