By the early 1840s, when Turner painted this work, his exhibited pictures were often astonishingly spare in the way they were finished. The last details he added to this picture seem to have been the summary outlines added to the blocks of dirty white that make up the distant sails.

Turner first encountered the work of the seventeenth-century artist, Salomon von Ruysdael, during his first visit to the Louvre in 1802. He remained an admirer of the Dutch artist''s work throughout his career. Here he pays a direct tribute to his predecessor in the name he gives his imaginary port.