Four tall Dutch ships ride at anchor on the IJ with their flags flying, surrounded by dozens of small sailing boats and rowboats packed with people. In the far distance at the right, the skyline of Amsterdam is a thin profile on the horizon, under a pale sky. The ships are the Mauritius, Hollant, Overijssel and Vrieslant, back in Amsterdam on 19 July 1599 from the Dutch fleet's second voyage to the East Indies, led by Jacob van Neck. Eight ships had sailed in 1598.

The first four returned from Bantam on Java a year later, and the others, which had gone on to the Moluccas, came home too, laden with nutmeg, mace and cloves. Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom signed the canvas "H Vroom F P Harlem 1599," and a gilded inscription on the frame names the four ships and the dates. The Rijksmuseum bought it in 1921 for 5,000 guilders from Johanna Maria Kneppelhout van Sterkenburg, and it was on loan to the Amsterdam Museum from 1975 to 2012.

It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.