Jack Tar's Drunken Frolic in Wapping

Broadside ballad entitled 'Jack Tar's Drunken Frolic in Wapping' illustrated with a woodcut engraving of a dancing sailor. This popular comic ballad refers to the antics of a sailor who, on coming ashore at London's docks, gets drunk, has his money stolen and wakes up beside a 'dead blackamoor'.

Comic ballads were hugely popular with Londoners. Primarily printed by small back street printers based in the Seven Dials area of London they were sold by ballad hawkers trading on London's streets. The ballad writers would receive little reward from the printers for their efforts, reportedly sometimes only a few pints of ale. The printer of this ballad John Pitts was a leading figure among the Seven Dials printers having established his business in Great Andrew Street in 1802. Pitts dominated the ballad trade until the advent of Jemmy Catnach in 1813.