Dutch Embarkation, or, Needs must when the Devil Drives (caricature)

This hand-coloured print depicts Napoleon on the left, in a comically oversized bicorn hat, holding his sword and instructing a troop of Dutchmen to board small, armed boats. Men can be seen drifting out to sea on the right, some are smoking pipes and some are praying.

Napoleon encourages a reluctant Dutchman, ‘Come, Come Sir, - No grumbling I insist on your embarking and destroying the modern Carthage – don’t you consider the liberty you enjoy – and the grand flotilla that is to carry you over!’. The Dutchman replies, ‘D__n such Liberty and D__n such a flotilla!! I tell you we might as well embark in walnut shells.’

After occupying the Dutch Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars, 1793-1802, France formed the Batavian Republic. Under French rule, the Batavian Navy played a role in Napoleon’s planned invasion of England. He had ordered the construction of a national flotilla in 1801, known as the Flottille de Boulogne. Gunboats, brigs and barges were built in ports along the channel in France and the Netherlands before gathering at Boulogne.