Ian Warrell has suggested that the subject may have been inspired in part by Turner’s sea voyage up the East Coast of England and Scotland to Edinburgh in August 1822 (see Thomas Ardill’s ‘George IV’s visit to Edinburgh 1822’ section of this catalogue), during which he made many drawings of the coast, including the very rugged stretch around Dunbar Castle in the
Scotch Antiquities sketchbook (Tate
D13617–D13624; Turner Bequest CLXVII 18a–23).
6 The apocalyptic finished design recalls earlier works such as the painting
The Wreck of a Transport Ship, of 1810 (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon)
7 and the watercolour
The Loss of an East Indiaman, c.1818 (The Higgins, Bedford),
8 both featuring figures in desperate straits on the steeply tilting decks of foundering vessels; see under Tate
D17178 (Turner Bequest CXCVI N) for the latter, as well as being reminiscent in early, dramatic exercises in the manner of Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740–1812), such as
A Rocky Shore, with Men Attempting to Rescue a Storm-Tossed Boat of 1792–3 (Tate
D00392; Turner Bequest XXIII R).