Comment:
Among the lethal innovations of WWI, the torpedoes launched from submarines were the most dreaded, particularly after Germany declared all-out submarine warfare 1 February 1917. From then on merchant vessels were also viewed as legitimate targets, and ships and sailors from neutral Norway were thereby drawn into the war. Before the war was over, more than two thousand Norwegian seamen lost their lives. Munch followed the events of the war closely, via Norwegian newspapers and English, French and German illustrated weeklies. In several drawings collectively entitle "The Torpedoed Ship" he depicts seamen fighting for their lives as the ship goes down. The act of war itself is shoved into the background; Munch concentrates rather on depicting the human suffering. These human beings struggle to climb upwards, in the same way as those who struggle to ascend the human mountain. But while the figures in "The Human Mountain" seem to be left to their own devices – no one helps anyone else and only one arrives at the top – in some of "The Torpedoed Ship" drawings shipwrecked sailors who have made it into the lifeboat reach down to help others up. Although not everyone can be saved, this glimpse of solidarity makes the atmosphere in these drawings less pessimistic and elitist than the variations over "The Human Mountain". Nevertheless, "The Torpedoed Ship" remained a digression in Munch’s art, an idea he tested but never developed further in printmaking or painting.