The Wasp, 1913 · page 187 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 187: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page appears to be a narrative or fictional story rather than a political cartoon. It describes a naval encounter between two damaged ships: a white schooner pursuing a crippled brig and schooner (possibly identified as "Hellfire Hicks's Black Polly"). The text employs nautical language metaphorically—"lame ducks" typically referred to disabled or weakened entities. The passage depicts the white schooner's crew preparing weapons and pursuing the struggling vessels, which the crew finds somewhat humorous given the vessels' diminished condition. **Without additional context or visible illustrations**, it's unclear what specific political or social figures these ships represent, or what 19th-century event this satirizes. The magazine *The Wasp* was known for satirical commentary, but this particular passage requires identifying the historical reference and visual content to explain the satire's target and point to a modern reader.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
182 THE WASP other. One could see at a glance that they were lame ducks, although most of their spars were standing. One was a long, low schooner, the other a short, high brig. The schooner had lost her maintop, the wreckage of which still cluttered her deck. She had a sharp list to larboard and seemed to be short- handed. The brig had lost a few yards and was down by the head. Orders were shouted aboard the white schooner. Men raced along the deck with glowing faces and hair-raising jokes. It was said by some that the crippled schooner was Hellfire Hicks’s Black Polly. Guns were uncovered and manned by their crews. Pistols and cutlases and pikes were brought from below. The cripples showed feeble but anxious signs of life. Head-sails were run up on the listed schooner, and the heavy-headed brig made a patch or two of saitand moved sluggishly before the wind. The men of the white schooner laughed at the brig’s efforts to escape, set their curved hands to their Comichooks.com