Nearer to the 'Whalers' pictures of 1845 and 1846 (see No.524) than to the 'Slavers' of 1840 (No.518) and therefore probably to be dated c. 1845. There is a drawing of a fairly similar composition in the "Whalers' sketchbook (T.B.CCCLIII -21 ; see also No.633) and the group of sea monsters is also related to Turner's various studies of fish such as that in the Victoria and Albert Museum (No.B127; see also Nos.269 and 271). John Gage has suggested that Turner's interest in the fantastic and monstrous aspects of fish was further suggested by the Rev. Thomas Gisbourne's Walks in a Forest, published in 1795 but quoted by Turner in connection with his 'Dawn of Christianity', exhibited in 184I (No.519); see also No.B108.