Stylistically akin to works of the mid-i830s. Almost certainly one of the works in the sale of John Pound, son of Turner's housekeeper Mrs Booth by her first husband, at Christie's on 25 March 1865. If so, this would strengthen the traditional association with Margate. Mrs Booth lived there from 1827 until 1846, when she moved to a house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, taken by Turner in her name; Turner seems to have stayed at Margate even before her second husband died in 1833 or 1834 (see Lindsay 1966, pp.175, 196-7). The picture may at some time have had the more specific title of 'Emigrants embarking at Margate' , usually given to another picture at Liverpool, possibly also from the Pound collection but more doubtfully by Turner (see The Emma Holt Bequest, Sudley, 1971, pp.72-3, No.312, and pp.77-9, No.311).