The Young Wanton Privateer bringing a Spanish Prize into the Port of Love

This hand-coloured mezzotint shows a Spanish sailor dressed in seventeenth-century clothing being welcomed into port by a woman, whom it is implied is sex worker. He holds a purse of money in his left hand. By his other arm, the woman guides him away from the dock. In the background, two figures unload a ship. The title, ‘The Young Wanton Privateer bringing a Spanish Prize into the Port of Love’, uses maritime vocabulary to allude to sexual activity. The woman is likened to a ‘privateer’, while her Spanish client is described as her ‘prize’ (a captured enemy vessel).

Published in 1781 by Robert Sayer and J. Bennett, this print is a typical representation of how interactions between sex workers and sailors were depicted. Such images made light of the harsh realities that sex workers faced in maritime communities, turning their activities into a source of comic titillation.