Jack Oakham throwing out a Signal for an Engagement

This hand-coloured mezzotint depicts a sailor and a woman on a hilltop. The sailor, wearing slops and a striped waistcoat, holds up a purse of money and tilts his head towards the woman. She wears a large, feathered hat and smiles coyly from behind her fan.

The title of the print uses maritime vocabulary to allude to romantic and sexual activity. Like a ship signaling the fleet to engage with the enemy, ‘Jack’ waves his purse at the woman as a signal for romantic engagement. The implication is that she is a sex worker and he is purchasing her services.

Published in 1781 by Robert Sayer and John Bennett, this print is a typical example oh how interactions between sex workers and sailors were depicted as sources of comic titillation, while also encouraging moral judgement of the sailor’s licentious behavior and the sex worker’s corruption.