A Tub for the Whale! (caricature)

In this hand-coloured print, a small ship contends with a rough sea and a low sun on the horizon. On the left, a sea monster threatens the boat, creating rocky waves, while a strong wind, created by a figure on the right resembling the Prince of Wales (later George IV), blows the vessel towards calmer waters. The caption along the bottom edge explains that the print represents ‘an Empty Barrel tossed to amuse the great Leviathan John Bull in order to divert him from instantly laying violent hands upon the new Coalition Packet – vide. Swifts preface to the Tale of a Tub’.
Johnathan Swift’s ‘A Tale of the Tub’ (1704) was a prose satire of religion and politics, which opened an explanation of the naval practice of throwing an empty tub overboard to distract nearby whales.

Following the sudden death of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in 1806, William Wyndham Grenville formed a new government. Pictured in this boat, the government was known as the ‘Ministry of All the Talents’. Grenville is front and centre in red with the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Charles Fox, in blue beside him, while the Lord Chief Justice, Edward Law, struggles to steer the ship. Behind them, from left to right: Lord Chancellor, Thomas Erskine; Treasurer of the Navy, Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice; Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, William Windham; Secretary of State for the Home Department (and former First Lord of the Admiralty), George Spencer; First Lord of the Admiralty, Charles Grey. The ‘Ministry of All the Talents’ was a coalition government but was considered a primarily Whig alliance.

Here, the barrel thrown to the whale is inscribed, ‘Real Constitutional Spirits / No Maidstone’ and underneath are the initials ‘M.T.’ (empty). The back of the boat reads ‘Pro Patria / Broad bottom’d packet’, and its broken mast, replaced with a broom, indicates the boat will soon be disposed of. Gillray has depicted the monster with bull-like horns, a play on the symbolic English character John Bull. It is spraying the boat and its passengers with water labelled ‘Ridicule’ and ‘Contempt’. The sun, labelled ‘Power’, emits rays that read ‘Cheese Pairings’, ‘Candle Ends’, ‘Pluralities’, ‘Duplicity’, ‘Dissipation’, ‘Sensuality’, ‘Libertinism’ and ‘Private Pickings’. The wind is helping them towards a calmer sea.