Austrian cartoon after Battle of Hampton Roads

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Do you have a better scan? This is a bit hard to read. The main caption reads "A see battle between a aged sailing ship and a young steamer*"

*Steamer-as in steam ship
 
Do you have a better scan? This is a bit hard to read. The main caption reads "A see battle between a aged sailing ship and a young steamer*"

*Steamer-as in steam ship
Sorry, I don't.

What is supposed to be the CSS Virginia with “Wahrheit” [truth] coming out the stack looks more like a union monitor/ ram combination.
 
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Sorry, I don't.

What is supposed to be the CSS Virginia with “Wahrheit” [truth] coming out the stack looks more like a union monitor/ ram combination.

The ram on the steamer is emblazoned with "WITZ" which translates to joke. I'm perplexed. It also seems to have the date on it's hull of 26 Feb.

Now I'm perplexed. The ship is emblazoned with "ULTRAMONTAN" which refers to the Catholic Papacy's ascendancy over other authorities both lay and ecclesiastical. The sails have "CORDAT" which I think refers to a Concordat which is a treaty between the office of the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a nation-state.

I really wish I could read the text below the image.

I suspect this is all a criticism of the Concordat of 1855.
 
Oh and
The ram on the steamer is emblazoned with "WITZ" which translates to joke. I'm perplexed. It also seems to have the date on it's hull of 26 Feb.

Now I'm perplexed. The ship is emblazoned with "ULTRAMONTAN" which refers to the Catholic Papacy's ascendancy over other authorities both lay and ecclesiastical. The sails have "CORDAT" which I think refers to a Concordat which is a treaty between the office of the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a nation-state.

I really wish I could read the text below the image.

I suspect this is all a criticism of the Concordat of 1855.
for further clarification the Concordat of 1855 was between the Holy See and Austria and led to several changes in a conservative direction.
 
According to German Wikipedia... machine translated... "26 Februar 1861: Emperor Franz Joseph I issues the February patent as a constitution for the whole Austrian monarchy . It solves the October Diploma from from the previous year and regulates the legislation between the emperor and the two chambers of the Imperial Council ." May or may not have some bearing on it.
 
According to German Wikipedia... machine translated... "26 Februar 1861: Emperor Franz Joseph I issues the February patent as a constitution for the whole Austrian monarchy . It solves the October Diploma from from the previous year and regulates the legislation between the emperor and the two chambers of the Imperial Council ." May or may not have some bearing on it.

Maybe it's just me, but trying to figure out this cartoon is dang fun!
 
Agree with others, this looks like a cartoon using Monitor and the sailing warship as an analogy for something else. How many times has imagery of Titanic and iceberg been used that way?

Any idea what the guy riding a sea monster with the harpoon is supposed to represent?
 
The ram on the steamer is emblazoned with "WITZ" which translates to joke. I'm perplexed. It also seems to have the date on it's hull of 26 Feb.

Now I'm perplexed. The ship is emblazoned with "ULTRAMONTAN" which refers to the Catholic Papacy's ascendancy over other authorities both lay and ecclesiastical. The sails have "CORDAT" which I think refers to a Concordat which is a treaty between the office of the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a nation-state.

I really wish I could read the text below the image.

I suspect this is all a criticism of the Concordat of 1855.

The text below the image reads:
"Eigenthümer, Verleger und verantwortlicher Redakteur: O. F. Berg. Zeichnungen aus dem Atelier von H. C. Thomayr. Druck von C. Ueberreuter. Papier von Fr. Lorenz Söhne.
--> Hierzu eine Inseraten-Beilage <--

which means:

Owner, publisher and responsible editor: O. F. Berg, Cartoons from the studio of H.C. Thomayr. Printing from C. Ueberreuter. Paper from Fr. Lorenz sons
--> with advertisments enclosed <--

You see, nothing substantial revealed by this text.
 
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The text below the image reads:
"Eigenthümer, Verleger und verantwortlicher Redakteur: O. F. Berg. Zeichnungen aus dem Atelier von H. C. Thomayr. Druck von C. Ueberreuter. Papier von Fr. Lorenz Söhne.
--> Hierzu eine Inseraten-Beilage <--

which means:

Owner, publisher and responsible editor: O. F. Berg, Cartoons from the studio of H.C. Thomayr. Printing from C. Ueberreuter. Paper from Fr. Lorenz sons
--> with advertisments enclosed <--

You see, nothing substantial revealed by this text.

Sadly while my German reading skills are fair with roman text, small blurry gothic text defeats me every time.
 
Wouldn't the presumed date of Feb 1861 be a year before the Monitor was finished? I'm a bit confused by how the artist could be so close to the real deal.
 
Would you have any insight as to what might have been going on down in Austria at the time that the cartoon might be commenting on?
Not really, unfortunately. I was guessing though ...
You did already find out that it must have something to to with the so-called "Februarpatent", the constitution of Austria dating from Feb. 26th, 1861.
Given this, the modern steamship could be the constitution which attacks the old union between church and emperor ... and the double-headed monster could be the new parliament which consisted of two houses and was surely dreaded by emperor and church ... but this is pure, personal speculation.
I have found in google.books an English text which unfortunately I couldn't copy and paste here, but if you're interested, you can read it for yourself. It seems to explain it a little bit but I don't know enough of history to fully understand the meaning
http://books.google.de/books?id=gr1APibDcQsC&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=Februarpatent concordat&source=bl&ots=CG6MRvTfPi&sig=oYhHRmplP80s6tjn8p84FyCmBGk&hl=de&sa=X&ei=xibUUo_TIsWThgfW-4HwCw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Februarpatent concordat&f=false

If the link doesn't work: I have searched Google with "Februarpatent" and "Concordat" and this was the first hit.

Edit: the word "Witz" (written on the ram) in German could mean "joke" but also cleverness. If you say, someone is "gewitzt", it means that he is pretty smart. To stay in the picture it could mean that the constitution comes with truth and cleverness to the help of the parliament ... whereas the cannons of the sailing ship "Concordat" (the letters (C, O and N of "Concordat" can barely be seen in the flags flying on top of the ship) are aimed at the "monster" parliament and threaten to shoot at it and sink it... Again: pure guessing! And I have no idea who the guy with the top hat, riding the monster might be. Maybe some politician who was popular at the time when this cartoon was published. But I think it has nothing to do with the American Civil War - or maybe it uses the setting of the sea battle, which might have been public knowledge in Austria, to illustrate a completely different meaning.
 
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Not really, unfortunately. I was guessing though ...
You did already find out that it must have something to to with the so-called "Februarpatent", the constitution of Austria dating from Feb. 26th, 1861.
Given this, the modern steamship could be the constitution which attacks the old union between church and emperor ... and the double-headed monster could be the new parliament which consisted of two houses and was surely dreaded by emperor and church ... but this is pure, personal speculation.
I have found in google.books an English text which unfortunately I couldn't copy and paste here, but if you're interested, you can read it for yourself. It seems to explain it a little bit but I don't know enough of history to fully understand the meaning
http://books.google.de/books?id=gr1APibDcQsC&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=Februarpatent concordat&source=bl&ots=CG6MRvTfPi&sig=oYhHRmplP80s6tjn8p84FyCmBGk&hl=de&sa=X&ei=xibUUo_TIsWThgfW-4HwCw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Februarpatent concordat&f=false

If the link doesn't work: I have searched Google with "Februarpatent" and "Concordat" and this was the first hit.

I think we might have a winner! Thank you!
 
The cartoon has to be around 1861 like mentioned above and I believe it has nothing to do with Hampton Roads.

By 1861-2, the Austrian navy was building or already had five, maybe more, ironclads in service. They were casemate or frigate-styled ships (like the New Ironside). For an Austrian cartoonist to picture the old (a wooden ship) vs the new (an ironclad) to get a point across makes perfect sense.

In 1866, during the Seven Weeks War, the Austrian ironclad navy defeated the larger Italian ironclad navy in the Adriatic Sea at a place called Lissa. It was the first seagoing ironclad battle in the world and the first and last seagoing battle were ramming was an objective. The Austrians had seven ironclads (plus wooden ships) and the Italians had eleven ironclad ships (plus wooden ships). The Italian flagship was the only ironclad that was a seagoing, turret, monitor.

Hope this might shed some light on the puzzle.
 
The text below the image reads:
"Eigenthümer, Verleger und verantwortlicher Redakteur: O. F. Berg. Zeichnungen aus dem Atelier von H. C. Thomayr. Druck von C. Ueberreuter. Papier von Fr. Lorenz Söhne.
--> Hierzu eine Inseraten-Beilage <--

which means:

Owner, publisher and responsible editor: O. F. Berg, Cartoons from the studio of H.C. Thomayr. Printing from C. Ueberreuter. Paper from Fr. Lorenz sons
--> with advertisments enclosed <--

You see, nothing substantial revealed by this text.
You took all the fun out of it lol
 
The 'steamer' looks very much like the Monitor (except for the ram) which was unlike anything conceived previously. Also, things in cartoons are supposed to be somewhat recognizable; the message is lost if the reader's first thought is "what the heck is that???" As 1950lemans mentioned, the Austrian ironclads of the day were conventional armored frigates and corvettes. It seems unlikely to me that a cartoonist would think of portraying a 'young steamer' that way until after the Monitor's debut. Presumably whatever conflict there was between the 1861 constitution and the Concordat was still ongoing.

The figure atop the turret looks like a rooster. The guy with the harpoon looks like Captain Ahab, whatever he would signify in Austria.
 
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