An excellent example of later eighteenth-century satire, this work is so satisfying one can’t help but imagine an accompanying set of images by caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson.
Our anonymous author gives the game away on the title-page with two quotes from Horace: “Ridiculum acri fortius et melius” [ridiculously sharp, stronger and better] and “Ridentem dicere verum quid vetat” [what forbids me from telling the truth with a smile?]
Arranged in descending rank - starting with Admiral and ending with Cook - among others it includes the Officer of Marines, the Surgeon, Chaplain, Gunner and Carpenter. All of whom are given choice pieces of wisdom, reflecting the issues of the day.
Commencing with a pressing issue on naval vessels, surgeons are advised that when “any libertine of the ship’s company, comes to you with a certain fashionable complaint give him directly a restringent injection of white vitriol, and he will be apparently cured in a few days, and with very little trouble to you. His disorder will probably make its appearance again in two of three months, which you can always attribute to his own imprudence … Above all, strive to cultivate a friendship with the purser and captain’s clerk, who will assist you in charging fifteen shillings for a venereal cure …” There are further notes on alcoholism and protecting the medicine chest from thieves.
Captains are instructed that “In the West-Indies, if any negro slaves from the enemy’s plantations, escape on board your ship, led by the hope of partaking British liberty, when under the British flag; as this example might hurt the sugar trade, if it encouraged the slaves of our islands to fly to the enemy, sell them at the first port, and put the money in your pocket” (p.39).
The cook is advised that “as every thing of an oily nature is apt to cause bilious complaints, boil the meat an hour or two more than the usual time, and you will extract every particle of fat, by the sale of which your profits will put you on a par with the other warrant officers.”
Published immediately after the Revolutionary War, at the height of the slave trade, and during the first phase of the era of grands voyages, this amusing little book has much to say about the issues involving each.
Rare: we locate copies of this issue at Huntington and Case Western only. Another issue “printed for the author, and sold by W. Flexney opposite Gray’s-Inn Gate, Holborn” is held more widely.
ESTC, N29842.
