The shipwrecked tar

‘The Shipwrecked Tar’ is a mezzotint published by Robert Laurie and James Whittle in 1797. It portrays a sailor wearing dirt-stained clothes. He arrives at a cottage, where is he greeted happily by a jumping dog. A woman rushes out to meet him, arms outstretched. Another woman and a young boy look on smiling from the cottage doorframe. In between the two parties is a hen in a wicker coop and a rooster with seven young chicks surrounding them.

This version has been cut down to remove the publishing line and the accompanying ballad ‘Shipwreck’d Tar’. The song tells the story of a sailor who is shipwrecked, lands ashore, remembers his faithful ‘Poll’ at home and makes his way back to her. The shipwrecked sailor is reunited with his love, who has been faithful to him during his absence. The song provides an uplifting narrative of traumatic events being in distant memory once returned home to loving friends and family.

Printmakers would often illustrate sentimental and warm-hearted scenes such as this. The sailor’s joyous homecoming to his sweetheart, often in a rural setting, was a common subject. It implied that sailors would be rewarded for their bravery and duty with domestic bliss.