Slaying the Dragon (Tuesday 23rd April 1918)

This cartoon refers to the Zeebrugge Raid, an attempt by the Royal Navy on 23 April 1918 to block the Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge, which was being used as a base for German U-boats and light shipping. It was ultimately unsuccessful.

Because the raid coincided with St George’s Day, it was likened to St George fighting the dragon. Before the action, Admiral Roger Keyes in the Warwick signalled the fleet with the battle cry “St George for England!”, to which Captain Alfred F.B. Carpenter in the Vindictive responded “May we give the dragon’s tail a damned good twist!”. The cartoon refers specifically to this remark, depicting Carpenter twisting the dragon’s tail, while one of his sailors wedges a white ensign in the dragon’s mouth. A bullet is shown passing through Carpenter’s cap, referring to a genuine incident from the battle. Carpenter was nominated by his fellow officers and men to receive the Victoria Cross for his conduct during the action. His ship, the Vindictive, came under heavy fire while landing troops on the Zeebrugge mole, part of the harbour’s defences.

The cartoon was probably drawn by a member of the naval fleet who fought in the raid, either as a gift for Carpenter or at his request. The artist has signed the drawing with a penname, “Chum”, in the lower right. Carpenter’s name is also written on the drawing, identifying him as the intended recipient of the drawing. The identity of “Chum” is currently unknown but further research may reveal his name. One possibility is the former Punch cartoonist Arthur Watts, who led a smoke-screen flotilla during the Zeebrugge raid and who later suffered from shellshock as a result of his wartime experiences.

Cartoons and caricatures were often drawn on naval warships. This practice was a form of entertainment, commemoration and community-building, and it is recorded in written sources. For example, Alfred Spencer recorded in his memoirs of his life at sea, written in 1910, that, at Christmas time, his ship’s painter, who was also a talented tattooist, “turned out quite a number of humorous pictures with happy skits upon the officers of the ship, at which even the officers themselves were forced to smile as they went the rounds at dinner time”.