The title given above is that of the 1809 exhibition catalogue. In 1810 it was called simply ‘Blythe Sand', but at the R.A. in 1815 ‘Bligh Sand, near Sheerness: Fishing Boats trawling'. The picture is the distillation of the elements of the other Thames Estuary pictures (see Nos.153 and 154). Neither the different types of shipping nor the town on the distant shore are of interest any more, only the everyday activity of fishing, paralleling that of ploughing up turnips in 'Slough', and the mood of sea and sky under particular weather conditions.

As in the case of the more conventional Thames Estuary pictures there is a related oil sketch among the large Thames sketches, even less specific and with no precise details in common (Tate Gallery 2698). There is also a wash drawing at the British Museum, closer in the placing of the nearest sailing boat but again not exactly the same (T.B.CXX-0).

The picture is one of the four mentioned, presumably as available for sale, in a letter to Sir John Leicester of 12 December 1810, accompanied by slight pen sketches of the subjects. According to Thornbury Turner had ‘the proud pleasure of refusing to sell "this picture" to his old enemy Sir John [sic for George] Beaumont' (1862, 1, p.297).