Wednesday Boer War Cartoon

This cartoon appeared in Punch in September 1900. It depicts Transvaal President Paul Kruger in a rowing boat, sadly abandoning a sinking ship called the Transvaal and it has the title THE SINKING SHIP.

 The meaning is fairly obvious, although the connotations are a little unfair to Kruger. The Transvaal Government, Pretoria having been captured in June, decided that they would not risk Paul Kruger being captured and so sent him first to Laurenco Marques in Portuguese Mozambique, from which he would eventually embark to Europe, where he would spend the rest of his life until his death in 1904.

When I say the connotations, what I mean is that when you look at the phrase “sinking ship’ you can’t help thinking about the saying ‘rats leaving a sinking ship’. Well, I’m sorry but I don’t see Paul Kruger as being any kind of rat. But also there’s the connotation of him fleeing from his country and leaving it to its fate to save his own skin. Unless you believe that the man was a total hypocrite, it just wasn’t the case. Kruger believed that he could do the best job for his country by not being caught and imprisoned and raising as much international support as he could.