Sailors on shore at Navarino (caricature)

This hand-coloured print features a British sailor, open armed at the centre. On the left is a Greek family in colourful traditional costume, and a French and Russian sailor stand on the right. In the distance a fort flies the Union Flag between the French and Russian flags, while a flaming shipwreck sinks to the right.

The print refers to the Battle of Navarino in 1827. This was a major event in the Greek War of Independence. After the Ottomans rejected a British treaty set to end six years of attacks on Greece, British, French and Russian forces allied to defeat the Ottoman-Egyptian navy. Here, the Greek family, made up of a mother, father and child appear grateful to the sailors. The father embraces the hand of the British sailor and says, ‘Thanks noble Friends for this assistance are we to count upon your further aid’. The sailor replies, ‘To be sure you are—and here's my Messmates who will stick to you as long as we have a Timber afloat—we had a bit of a Squall our selves a little while ago—but that's all over now an't it Mounsear’. He holds the French sailor’s hand, who is arm-in-arm with the Russian. The Frenchman raises his hat to answer, ‘Oui Oui, Monsieur’.

The caricature is signed in the lower left with a small figure of a crouching man, leaning on a cane. This figure represents ‘Paul Pry’, a pen name frequently used by artist William Heath. Heath took the name from the title character in a farce written by playwright John Poole in 1825.