Angling in Troubled Waters A Serio-Comic Map of Europe by Fred. W. Rose Author of the 'Octopus Map of Europe' 1899.

One of the most famous serio-comic maps. A chromolithographed large caricature map of Europe with each country depicted as an angler having various levels of success in hooking colonies, by Fred W. Rose, London.
Like his Octopus Map (1877), Angling in Troubled Water was hugely popular and was printed in thousands of copies and in multiple editions. Despite its large circulation, however, the fragility of the paper on which it was printed has meant that most copies have perished over time. Consequently, it stands as a map of considerable rarity today.
The exact chronology of issues remains unclear, but as international demand for the map rose, new states were issued with a subtitles in German, French, and Italian. The present copy is the original state published in London which was issued folded within a slip case and with text written only in English.
Being a figurative and highly symbolic map, rich in detail, the publishers did not want the images to be misinterpreted or taken out of context. For this reason, two descriptive legends detailing the symbolic character of each nation is provided in the lower corners of the map.

England is represented as John Bull – an imagined personification of the English, much like Uncle Sam is for Americans. Over his shoulder he already carries several nets (Ireland and Scotland), which contain a rich bounty of colonial possessions (including Burma). At his feet we find the key resources of ships, money, and men, and in his hands a fishing rod, at the end of which hangs a crocodile that represents Britain’s colonial aspirations in Egypt.

France is represented as the internal struggle between civil and military power, aptly symbolised by the 1898 Dreyfus Affair. This scandal was an expression of the latent and insidious anti-Semitism inherent in European societies in the late 19th century, especially in times of economic hardship.
The dishonourable and highly public dismissal of this loyal French officer, whose only crime was his Jewish background, resonated throughout the western world and set in motion a number of events still affecting the world today. In the crowd witnessing Dreyfus’ humiliation was a young Jewish journalist and intellectual from Vienna, who was so appalled by the scene that he became convinced that even the principles of modernity could not uproot the hatred of Jews in Europe. His name was Theodore Herzl, and in the years following the Dreyfus affair he would distill his thoughts into the principles of Zionism and write his famous manifesto, Der Judenstaat, which called for the creation of an actual Jewish State.
In southern France, we see a reference to Panama, which symbolises another major French scandal that took place a few years before the Dreyfus affair. A French company, in collaboration with two German-Jewish businessmen (Jacques Reinach & Cornelius Herz), lost circa half a billion Francs on the first and failed Panama Canal project. Hannah Arendt, a famous Jewish intellectual and historian, has argued that it was the involvement of German Jews in this scandal that helped re-ignite anti-Semitic sentiments in France and ultimately lead to the Dreyfus Affair.
In general, France does not seem to enjoy much recognition on the map. In addition to bungling the Panama Canal, French colonial influence in Africa is waning as well, represented by a fish labeled ‘Fashoda.’ The fish has escaped the French line, a reference to a failed 1898 military campaign, in which the French army attempted to seize control of the White Nile in order to prevent British expansion into Mahdi Sudan.
From Corsica, we see a diminutive version of the once great Napoleon, looking on as France throws away her global influence and presence. Despite the gloomy outlook, France has securely landed two good catches in the form of Tunis and Tonquin (referring to its North African and Vietnamese possessions).

With Spain, we see the portrayal of a once great nation that has undergone the massive social and economic changes that seem to be the destiny of Europe’s other great colonial powers. Dressed as a matador, King Alfonso XIII looks with melancholy to the southwest, where three fish have been lost off lines extending west, out of the map. These represent Spain’s loss of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines to the United States following the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the Spanish-American War (1898).
Behind him, in a malevolent pose that seems to initiate an attack from behind, we see the looming figure of Infante or Don Carlos. As Duke of Madrid, Don Carlos was the senior living member of the House of Bourbon, and laid claim to the thrones of both Spain and France. Despite functioning as the de facto ruler of Spain for four years following the Third Carlist War, he never actually achieved formal ascension to any European throne.

In Portugal we see a well-dressed figure holding a large fish inscribed ‘Delagoa.’ The man represents the Portuguese state, and Delagoa is the region along the eastern coast of southern Africa. The image constitutes a symbolic reference to Portugal’s very lucrative sale of Mozambique to private corporations largely controlled by British financiers. With appropriate irony the caption reads: “Portugal seems likely to dispose of his catch to advantage; whereby his empty purse may assume rounder proportions.”
And who other than the imposing figure of the Kaiser could represent the German Empire, whose many successes are acknowledged on the map, both in print and visually. An important detail, highly pertinent to the specific time in which this map was created, is a single fish stringed around the Kaiser’s waist.
Labeled ‘Kiao-Chau,’ it refers to a deal with Early Republican China in which Germany leased a large territory in Jiaozhou Bay on the Shangdong Peninsula. Germany’s presence in East Asia made a huge impact on its global standing as an industrial power and Jiaozhou soon became the East Asian headquarters for the German Imperial Navy. Yet despite his many recent successes, the Kaiser yearns for more and intensely surveys to the east for opportunity. Whether such opportunity could come in the form of trade, further industrialization, or territorial expansion remains enigmatic, but his military attire and firm gaze seem suggestive of events to come.

Smaller countries such as Holland, Belgium, and Denmark have been depicted as cute little realms, mostly interested in themselves. Holland is represented as her young and newly ascended Queen Wilhelmina, whereas Denmark, slightly more prominently, has been depicted as “the cradle of the royal races of Europe” (as stated in the legend). The ageing Belgian King, Leopold II, looks content enough as he closely grasps his rich catch in Congo, but Rose’s strong sense of political and social irony is also present in the form of a large snake lying over the king’s shoulders labeled ‘Gambling Hells.’
Other, smaller countries, or countries of insignificant political influence, have also been rendered somewhat mockingly. Serbia and Romania, for example, have been shown as children “almost too young to walk alone…”, whereas Norway and Sweden have been depicted as two dogs bound together by a leash but seemingly at odds with each other.
The associated text notes that “…they may break the leash which binds them together and leave them prey to enterprising neighbours” — a reference to the increasingly strained Swedish-Norwegian Union (1814-1905).

To the south, Italy stands erect but perplexed and burdened by its massive public debts. Its people, represented on the map by Sardinia and Sicily, are downtrodden by heavy taxation as a consequence. Despite the dire economic situation at home, Italy nevertheless manages for now to hang on to its colonies in Eritrea and Somalia, denoted by three fish labeled Erythrea, Raheita, and Massowah (Massawa). Further east we find the first indications of an independent Greece, although he hardly cuts an impressive figure. A small figure, dwarfed by his large Turkish neighbour, we see how Greece has made an autonomous attempt to hook Crete – a great catch indeed – but seems to have pricked his finger in the process.
Despite being much diminished from its former glory, one of the most prominent figures in the map is Ottoman Turkey. Like John Bull and the Spanish King, the Ottoman figure is attired in national garb, though somewhat more caricatured than his European counterparts. He has a massive nose and dons a traditional fez, red baggy pants, and Turkish slippers.
Dominating much of the lower right of the image, Turkey looks curiously on Greece; cupping his ear to make sure he catches every detail of their rebellious activities, and perhaps of the general goings on in Europe. Despite the Greek attempt to catch it, Crete remains hooked on the Turkish line. One of the most notable features of the map is associated with the Ottomans, namely the skulls found on his elbow and knee.
These represent the ethnic massacres conducted by the Ottoman military, the more famous of which of course is the Armenian genocide (here represented by the skull on the knee). The other represents similar massacres in Bulgaria.

Finally, Russia is represented by the largest and most prominent figure on the map: Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Nicholas occupies a substantial portion of the composition and has an imposing and threatening air about him. He holds out an olive branch as a symbol of peace, but the branch stretches across Finland, where a large stockpile of Russian bombs, muskets, and cannonballs are obfuscated behind its leaves.
The Tsar himself is also well armed, with both a sheathed saber and a pair of pistols in his belt. Over his shoulder hangs a large net in which a number of Central Asian fish have been securely caught. These include the ancient trade cities of Merv and Khiva.
A third and fourth fish have been labeled ‘Ta-Lien-Wan’ and ‘Port Arthur’ respectively. These are references to the Russian influence exercised in northeastern China at the end of the 19th century. While Ta-Lien-Wan refers to the archipelago of Dalian Bay, Port Arthur refers to the naval base there, which was the British rendezvous point during the Second Opium War (1856-1860). The Tsar’s fishing line underlines Russian interests in China in that it extends to the eastern fringe of the image, where it seemingly has hooked an actual Chinese dragon.
In the upper right corner we find a small colored inset map showing the real outlines of the European nations that have been represented pictorially in the larger map.

Frederick William Rose is the most famous of the satirical mapmakers active in the late nineteenth century, but long an elusive figure, signing himself ​“Fred. W. Rose”, an unfortunately common name for the period. It is only recently that his biography has been established. He was born in London, the son of a Scot, Hugh Munro St. Vincent Rose of Glastullich and Tarlogie.
He was gainfully employed in the Civil Service, in the Inland Revenue; he enjoyed traveling, and published accounts of his travels, and was also an amateur artist, specializing in caricature or satirical maps – ​"serio-comic maps" as he termed then — for which he is now best remembered.
His most famous are two from 1877, his Serio-Comic War Map for the Year 1877 and the Revised Edition Serio-Comic War Map for the Year 1877, the first signed with initials, the second signed as F.W. Rose. A companion from 1877, The Avenger an Allegorical War Map for 1877 was issued anonymously by the same publisher and has divided opinion as to its authorship.
At the time of the Boer War, Rose issued two more satirical maps, Angling in Troubled Waters and John Bull and his Friends both making light of the developing confrontation in Europe between Germany and her neighbours which led to the First World War, in which Rose’s two youngest sons were quickly killed, probably leading to his demise in early 1915.

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Reference: Journal of the International Map Collectors’ Society 146: 15-28.