Life, 1925-05-14 · page 16 of 40
Life — May 14, 1925 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a humorous comic narrative about a fishing voyage, told in dialect verse with accompanying illustrations. The story follows sailors from what appears to be a commercial fishing expedition, describing their catches and maritime adventures in exaggerated, colloquial language ("'Twuz," "an'," "fer"). The comic celebrates naval/fishing culture through tall tales about enormous sea creatures (whales, bass, eels, squids), implausibly large catches, and dramatic maritime incidents. References to specific locations like "Point Teague's" and "foreign shores" suggest an actual expedition, though the increasingly fantastical claims indicate this is satirical. The overall joke mocks sailors' legendary storytelling tradition—the tendency to embellish fishing tales with increasingly absurd details. The pairing of crude dialect with detailed illustrations emphasizes the working-class nautical humor that Life magazine's audience would have found entertaining.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* LIFE » MARITIME MA RV_E L ‘we introduce our hero, broadcaster brinebosh- capt GpPpause Buy bs mailed | *Twuz ona lorn Juvember morn, come last Octobuary, or mebbe might "twuz Toozday night, I don't remember, ver: but anyhow I'm tellin’ now o’ fightin’ fierce and wild, — apt. broadcaster brinebe in early youth. | fer I'm th’ chap wot seen th’ scrap wen 1 wuz but a child. cap. brinebosh asetting sail on his eventful voyage. {sea text) _ *Twuz thar they fit an’ clawed an’ bit an’ lashed th’sea t’ suds an’ bust the'r hides an’ heads besides an’ squandered of the'r bloods. fleet of excursing that would of went to) See che Aight if they had of known of it O fish wuz drowned fer miles around an’ sharks wuz mashed t’mush, —— bowl of shark mush with] ‘team and sugar and spoon, and poncho to match. big weezy wiles they lost the’r tails a-crammin’ through th’ crush. 335) | the Dillion 6 loneth , bass em, scoping (text) A billion bass wuz lost, alas! an’ eels wuz skinned by scores; Full forty leagues frum Point o'Teague's, or mebbe forty-four, GNP ap marine mile po: th’ sea wuz hot experts disagreciog on methods of eel-shinning | one lone sting-ra: he got seat y an’ hit fer foreign shores. as shrapnel shot an’ gory, furthermore. foreign shores, showing methed of identification. I dense? fog An’ deep-sea-farin’ kippered herrin’, turtle, drum wuz ground to paste like ‘so much waste fer nineteen hunderd The anguished shout o' mangled trout jes’ tore th’ air fer miles an’ O th’ squish o' jelly fish thet riz up all th’ wiles! Sea-scabs, sand-dabs an’ spider crabs wuz smeared as fine as silt; th’ sea jest biled an’ Spawn wvz spiled an’ seaweed up an’ wilt. An’ four mile high I seen a fly— no— ‘twuz a albatross! a aie, in which | jalbacresses just ove to tty. Th' blast o steam hits him abeam, he falls a total loss. Aw here an’ there throughovt th’ air th’ petrels, gulls an’ terns, Pees = LL I seen em drop with nary flop —thet sea jes’ simply burns! che hares” ee | yatainesrs! herrest Mine wa'n't th’ mood fer stewed sea food; I tacks an’ beats fer Skinner's. Whut fit ? "Twuz two young whozzelboo. Not big ones — 1 these wuz minners: Dut what are or is these or this here Sew who2rzelboo?” % comicbooks.com