Hand-coloured print 'The Storm rising; - or - the Republican Flotilla in danger (caricature)'.

This is another print responding to the French invasion threat of early 1798 and to the reports of the construction of an enormous raft to carry Revolutionary troops across the Channel. Here the raft is being winched towards shore by the Whig Opposition ‘collaborators’ Fox, Sheridan, Tierney and Bedford. At the top right, however, Pitt – transformed into a god-like elemental fury – whips up the waves into a storm to swamp the vessel. Each gust of wind from his mouth bears the name of a recent naval hero. A contemporary German critic, writing of Gillray’s series of prints on the invasion theme, thought this the best of the lot, showing:

‘the approach of what is supposed to be a large raft, containing windmills, castles and all the murderous instruments with which the French are threatening the English. On the shore we see a capstan or ship’s winch with a rope, which is being turned by fat Fox (looking for all the world like a thresher) … A rope leads from the capstan through the water to the ship, hauling it in. The fat-cheeked winds, whose gusts bear the names of the great saviours of the nation … are trying as hard as they can to blow the terrifying machine away. I cannot begin to describe the impression which this characteristic print makes on all who see it.’

Gillray also appears to be making reference to the increasing vogue for narratives and images of shipwrecks and nautical disasters, which assumed greater significance at this period as a metaphor for the crisis besetting the maritime nation. However, here the terms of the metaphor are inverted: the wreck of this particular vessel does not signify national disaster but deliverance, and the actions of the ‘rescuers’ on the cliff-top are not heroic but treacherous.

A very similar print was issued by Gillray’s rival satirist Isaac Cruikshank just a few days earlier on 28 January.