A copperplate engraving from the book titled, 'Plan de plusieurs b̢timens de mer avec leurs proportions dedi̩ �� Son Altesse Serenissime Monseigneur Louis Auguste de Bourbon' (Marseille: c. 1720) by the French Captain Henri Sbonski de Passebon. The book was a collection of naval architecture prints. The print depicts a type of 17th-century ship called a polacca (or polacre) similar to the xebec. The polacca was frequently sailed in the Mediterranean and had two or three single-pole masts. Three-masted vessels, as the one depicted in this print, were often with a lateen hoisted on a forward-slanted foremast and a gaff or lateen on the mizzen mast. The mainmast was square-rigged.
A small and large oriflamme flies from the main mast. A small lateen-rigged sailing vessel and a fortress on a mountainous shore flank the polacre on the left and right side of the print. There is a watermark of a sun with a face and another watermark of three or more letters visible on the verso.
