The 183I Royal Academy catalogue gave no title as such but the following long description: '"In this arduous service (of reconnoissance) on the French coast, 1805, one of our cruisers took the ground, and had to sustain the attack of the flying artillery along shore, the batteries, and the fort of Vimieux, which fired heated shot, until she could warp off at the rising tide, which set in with all the appearance of a stormy night." - Naval Anecdotes' . Turner was not alone at the exhibition in showing a picture recalling the heroic days of the Napoleonic wars, but the real inspiration in this case probably came from the unused Petworth sketch of 'A Ship Aground' (No.329).

Unlike the figure compositions in the same exhibition this painting seems to have been generally admired. The Library of the Fine Arts for June 1831 described how the firing of red-hot shot, the sun of a bloody hue "low, deep, and wan", the forlorn and frightened gull, the ball hissing in the water, and the stranded ship, present a vivid picture of the event, while the imagination of the ensemble is grand and stupendous. When will Mr Turner show symptoms of decay ? ... his genius is still green as when we first saw it in the boyhood of our life'. Nevertheless the picture does not seem to have been sold until about 1845 when it was bought by Charles Meigh, probably for £500 (Finberg 196I, p.409). At his sale in 1850 it went for £693 to the first American collector of Turner's work, James Lenox, who had already bought 'Staffa, Fingal's Cave' (No.490). It returned to this country in 1956 and was then acquired by the present owner.