Dropping the Pilot
# Dropping the Pilot

Dropping the Pilot is a political cartoon by Sir John Tenniel, first published in the British magazine Punch on 29 March 1890. It depicts Chancellor Otto von Bismarck as a maritime pilot who is stepping off a ship, perhaps a reference to Plato's ship of state, idly and unconcernedly watched by a young Wilhelm II, German Emperor. Bismarck had resigned as Chancellor at Wilhelm's demand just ten days earlier on 19 March because of political differences.

After the cartoon's publication, Tenniel received a commission from the 5th Earl of Rosebery to create a copy to be sent to Bismarck himself. The former chancellor reportedly replied, "It is indeed a fine one".

The cartoon is well known in Germany and often used in history textbooks and school books, under the title The Pilot Leaves the Ship (German: Der Lotse geht von Bord).

## Adaptations

* Prophecy? (Dropping the Pilot) by Will Dyson, 1914
* The Haunted Ship by Bernard Partridge, 1915
* Dropping the Pirate by William H. Walker, 1918
* Dropping the pilot, referring to Kaiser Wilhelm's removal from the list of Royal Navy admirals in 1914, by David Low
* Dropping the pilot, referring to Winston Churchill, by Daniel Bishop
* Cartoon Dropping the Pilots showing Khrushchev looking down as the four "Pilots" leave the ship of state.
* Cartoon showing the pilot Abraham Lincoln being "Dropped" from the "Grand Old Party" By Captain Barry Goldwater
* Cartoon showing Margaret Thatcher being "Dropped as the Pilot"
* Steve Bell of The Guardian has adapted the cartoon:
   * Vice-president faces isolation after key ally leaves Pentagon
   * Iraqis celebrate the withdrawal of American combat troops
   * David Cameron's response to Coulson's guilt
   * Dropping the pornbot (Resignation of Damian Green)
* Martin Rowson of The Guardian has also adapted the cartoon repeatedly:
   * Steve Hilton's Exit
   * Undropping the Pilot
   * The resignation of Michael Flynn
   * Dropping The Pilate on the resignation of Liz Truss after only 45 days in office
