Sternhold and Hopkins at Sea or a Stave out of Time (caricature)

On the left of this hand-coloured print, Admiral James Gambier is sat reading his cabin. A clergyman stands behind him, seemingly shocked, splaying his hands in front of him. The cabin houses a cannon and a table scattered with documents, which spill onto the surrounding floor. On the right, the ship’s boatswain holds his head in bemusement, entering with Lord Cochrane who wears an officer’s uniform and bicorn hat.

The scene illustrates reported frustrations between officers during the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809. After Lord Cochrane had successfully run the French fleet aground, Gambier, commander of the Channel Fleet, ordered a blockade of the enemy instead of an attack. Cochrane labelled Gambier a coward and criticised the decision, permanently damaging Gambier’s reputation.

Here Cochrane pleads to Gambier, ‘Why adm’l, D-n their Eyes they’ll escape if we don’t make haste’. Uninterested, Gambier replies, ‘Moab my wash pot is, my shoe, o’er Edom I will throw.’ The discombobulated boatswain dissents, ‘Your shoe won’t do for the French Fleet. I think we had better throw some shells your Honor.’

Gambier was among several naval officers known to be engaging with religious societies. Here he is depicted favouring religious readings over his duties, in this case the works of Sternhold and Hopkins, writers who published ‘The whole booke of psalmes’ in English, as well as hymns and religious music. His unused telescope has fallen on the floor alongside the ship’s torn logbook, and a pile of ‘Congreve [Ro]ckets’ lie untouched at his feet. A ‘Map of the Holyland’ takes the place of navigational charts on the cabin wall, and the table blocks the canon from being used. The priest moans, ‘Oh the wicked Dog he has put us quite out, he is insensible of the beauties of Divine Poetry’, complaining that Cochrane’s interruption is an unwelcome distraction.

The corners of this print have been cut diagonally. Another impression of this image forms part of an album in the collection, see PAG8601.