The Jolly Jack Tar and Eighteenth-Century British Masculinity
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CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY Three Sheets to the Wind: The Jolly Jack Tar and Eighteenth-Century British Masculinity by Juliann Elizabeth Reineke A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 i Abstract My dissertation traces the development of the Jolly Jack Tar, a widespread image of the common British sailor, beginning with the formal establishment of Royal Navy in 1660 and ending in 1817 with the publication of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, a novel devoted to presenting a new model of the professional seaman. I also analyze Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), Charles Johnson’s A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724), Tobias Smollett’s Roderick Random (1748), and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative (1789) in conjunction with ephemeral cultural artifacts like songs, cartoons, newspapers, and miscellany to fill in the variable, uneven history of the novelistic Jack Tar over the course of the long eighteenth century. My analysis seeks to answer the following questions: How do fictionalized accounts of sailors (like those found in novels) reflect, challenge, or reinforce the portrayal of sailors in other cultural texts, like songs or plays? How does print culture inflect the construction of Jack Tar, particularly regarding the figure’s connection to Britain and an emergent national identity? How do literary and cultural texts represent seamen’s complicated relationship to the home and the family, particularly when seamen were, by the nature of their profession, typically far from Britain? To answer these questions, I bring together print history, performance studies, post-colonial studies, maritime history, and disability studies. I contend that the complex image of Jack Tar was a tool authors employed to advocate for a new type of British man, one who is brave, patriotic, and supportive of the homefront, but also destructive, a drunkard, and sexually promiscuous. I argue that the Tar was used by black and white sailors to craft their own self-representations and carve out a place in British society. Lastly, portrayals of Jack Tar on the British stage, in images, and in novels, particularly those ii published at the end of the long eighteenth century, seek to contain and reframe the potentially destabilizing effect of demobilization which resulted in thousands of seamen, many of whom disabled, returning home and lacking a clear path for reintegration. In essence, complex and often contradictory literary and cultural representations of the Tar reflected eighteenth-century Britons’ concerns over emergent masculine identities as well as anxieties of and hopes for the expanding nation. iii Acknowledgements I am indebted to my committee, Kristina Straub, Jon Klancher, and Marian Aguiar, for their insightful feedback that helped me find new ways to expand my research. I am immensely grateful to Kristina for her generosity and attention to my work and her countless invaluable suggestions that opened new doors for this dissertation. She pushed me to move out of my comfort zone as a writer and thinker, and my development as a scholar owes much to her rigorous attention and honest feedback. I would not have been able to navigate the tangled world of the British theater, for instance, without her expertise and limitless knowledge. Jon’s extensive feedback on “Defoe and the Emergent, Nationalistic Jack Tar,” in particular, helped me better understand the myriad of genres intersecting in sea fiction in the early eighteenth century as well as how sailors responded to Daniel Defoe’s novels. Marian deserves special recognition for her notes on post-colonial studies that shaped my thinking for “‘This Hollow Place the Ship’: Constructing British Identities through Sea Travel in Equiano’s Interesting Narrative.” I am honored to have worked with a committee that constantly encouraged me and taught me trust my instincts with where to take the project. My work at the Global Communication Center has impacted me in innumerable ways, and for that I cannot thank Joanna Wolfe enough for giving me the opportunity to learn about writing in other fields, which helped me further develop my own voice, and work with our tutors who continually inspire me. I have also been lucky enough to share my work with peers like Nisha Shanmugaraj and the brilliant Natalie Suzelis, both of whom challenged me to see my sources and arguments in new ways. This project has also benefited from Hunt Library’s and, more broadly, Carnegie Mellon’s commitment to graduate student research. As a Posner Center Intern under the iv guidance of the delightful Mary Catharine Johnson, I was able to explore archives and rare books, fully immersing myself in the beautiful tangible remnants of a cultural moment near and dear to my heart. The Three Minute Thesis competition gave me the opportunity to share my work with the larger CMU community, and the award paved the way for me to access hard-to-find research materials. I wish to also thank my family and friends for their unflagging patience, encouragement, and emotional support. My parents, John and Vannessa, encouraged my love of literature and never doubted me. Ana Cooke, my dear friend, deserves special recognition for helping me weather the storm of graduate school. Lastly, words could never fully express my enduring gratitude to my darling husband, Ross Wheatley, whose good cheer and smile brightens my life. v Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Defoe and the Emergent, Nationalistic Jack Tar ......................................................... 22 Chapter 2: An Officer and a Gentleman: Smollett’s Tom Bowling and Tarpaulins .................... 63 Chapter 3: “This Hollow Place the Ship”: Constructing British Identities through Sea Travel in Equiano’s Interesting Narrative ................................................................................. 112 Chapter 4: “Not fit to be seen”: Depictions of Disabled Seamen in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century ............................................................................................... 160 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 199 Appendix A: Chapter 1 Supplemental Texts .............................................................................. 204 Appendix B: Chapter 2 Supplemental Texts .............................................................................. 205 Appendix C: Chapter 4 Supplemental Texts .............................................................................. 210 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 215 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Charles Williams’ John Bull threatened by Insects from all Quarters!! (1807) ............ 41 Figure 2: Isaac Basire’s “Capt Bartholomew Roberts” (1734) (Johnson “Capt Bartholomew Roberts”). .......................................................................................................................... 49 Figure 3: John Sell Cotman’s Caricature of a Sailor (1799). ....................................................... 63 Figure 4: Daniel Dodd’s illustration of Bowling killing the foxhunting dogs (1780). ................. 75 Figure 5: Luke Clennell’s drawing of Bowling killing the foxhunting dogs and confronting Roderick’s cousin (1810). ................................................................................................. 77 Figure 6: Samuel Collings’ “Morgan Offending the Delicate Organs of Captain Whiffle” (1800). ............................................................................................................................... 82 Figure 7: G. M. Woodward’s “Lieut. Bowling Pleading the Cause of Young Rory” (1800). ...... 83 Figure 8: The Scotch Triumvirate (1752). ..................................................................................... 85 Figure 9: Thomas Rowlandson and George Moutard Woodward’s The Welch Sailor's Mistake or Tars in Conversation (1808). ........................................................................................ 87 Figure 10: A timeline of Tom Bowling’s appearances on the page and stage in the mid- to late eighteenth century. ............................................................................................................ 91 Figure 11: Illustration of Woodward as Ironsides in The Brothers (“Richard Yates”). .............. 101 Figure 12: Thomas Stothard's Sailors in Port, engraved by William Ward (1798). ................... 103 Figure 13: Poor Tom Bowling by unknown artist and published by Robert Sayer (1791). ........ 109 Figure 14: Isaac Cruikshank’s “Sons of Neptune shaving a Landsman! (1817). ........................119 Figure 15: John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark (1778). ........................................... 127 Figure 16: Giles Grinagain’s “The Indignant Tar” (1804). ......................................................... 132 Figure 17: George Cruikshank’s “The Sailors Progress” (1818). ............................................... 133 Figure 18: “The British Tar Triumphant,