The oil painting, 'Wreckers off Fort Rouge' - a stormy view from seaward - was an early success of Stanfield's. It won him a £50 premium from the British Institution when it was exhibited there in 1828, and was engraved as a mezzotint by J. P. Quilley the following year. This relates to it, though a very different view of the old Napoleonic defence fort off Calais, here seen from landward in the harbour entrance at low tide.

It bears an integral signature and date 'C. Stanfield 1827' at the bottom of the image. The source is a watercolour (12 1/2 x 11 ins: 317 x 279 mm) also signed and dated 1827 at the bottom of the image which the Birmingham pen maker and collector, Joseph Gillott, bought from Henry Wallis (possibly the engraver) on 23 May 1860 for £133 8s. This is still known in private hands and was last sold in September 2024.

A fully attributed but unsigned oil version - though possibly in fact a copy - on canvas (13 1/2 x 11 3/4 ins: 343 x 298 mm) was sold at Christie's, London, British Pictures, lot 80 (ill.) 22 Nov 2006.