Hemy’s paintings capture, like few other artists have, the relationship between men and the sea. Hemy understood boats and fishermen and braved the often tumultuous seas around the Cornish coast in pursuit of an honest depiction of their struggle. 

Counting the Catch! is a case in point. The work was painted in 1902 and is one of Charles Napier Hemy's larger oils. A wonderfully atmospheric work; rain pounds the two fishermen as they attempt to sort their catch by the landing stage. The boat is tied up but clearly being tossed around by the squally weather and sea, doubling the fishermen's task. The artist uses the device of another fishing lugger behind the swells to accentuate the sense of rough and possibly worsening sea conditions. Gulls greedily fight over the scraps of fish entwined in the net thrown ashore by the fishermen. A gritty depiction of the fisherman's lot in keeping with the social realism that prevailed in Newlyn and extended via Hemy to Falmouth. But where Langley, Forbes and Bramley captured the hardships of the fishermen's shore bound wives and sweethearts, Hemy went to sea to record the harsh conditions and sometimes peril facing the men themselves.