Exhibited in 1851 as ‘The Wreck of the Minotaur, Seventy-four, on the Haack Sands, 22nd December 1810' with the note that it was 'Painted in 1811-12 for the father of the Earl of Yarborough', the lender; in 1849 it was catalogued with the title given above, followed by 'purchased by the Father of the Earl of Yarborough'. In May 1810 the Hon. Charles Pelham, later Ist Earl of Yarborough, paid Turner approximately £300 for an unspecified picture. If this was this work it cannot show the wreck of the Minotaur which took place later in the year. However, although the price is less than the 100 guineas paid in 1804 by Pelham's father for ‘The Festival upon the Opening of the Vintage at Macon', a picture of the same size (see No.76), there is no other candidate for the Pelham picture.

Turner used at least two of the studies in the 1Shipwreck No.1' sketchbook for this picture (T.B.LXXXVII8, 23, the second repr. Wilkinson 1974, p.66). The sketchbook contains a list of subscribers to the 'Shipwreck' engraving of 1806 (see No.B101) which also suggests that this new painting grew out of the old rather than being inspired by the actual incident of December 1810.

The composition of the picture represents a further advance beyond that of 'The Shipwreck' in the way the whole picture conveys the tumult of the catastrophe. The elements of the composition are arranged in much the same lozenge-like shape, but they flow into each other and are given energy by a much looser handling of the paint, foreshadowing the all-engulfing vortex of 'Hannibal crossing the Alps' (see No.88).

When the picture was exhibited in 1849 the Spectator for 16 June saw it as already showing signs of decline by the side of 'Macon' (No.76): ‘By the next generation ... Turner had grown more audacious, and had correspondingly lost power: the forms are looser, all are fermenting and dissolving - a partial foretaste of that dissolution which now decomposes all Turner's works even before they reach the canvas.' On the other hand, the Athenaeum for the same date was full of praise: 'For the credit of England and of Mr. Turner let it be said that the picture of most excellence and interest in this assemblage is from his hand ... We have no recollection of any production in its class - whether of the Dutch, the Italian, or the French school - which surpasses - or even equals - this artist's Shipwreck.' It showed 'a grasp of mind and a command of hand that have exhibited in a high moral sense the excitement and action of the tempest in its wrath.'