The Wasp, 1913 · page 258 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 258: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains narrative text from what appears to be a serialized adventure story, likely titled "The Tartar" (mentioned at bottom). It describes a naval encounter between three vessels: a sloop captained by Scovil, a French frigate, and a white schooner that is mysteriously pursuing Scovil's damaged sloop rather than continuing battle with the brig. **The narrative setup:** Scovil chooses to withdraw from the conflict to protect his own wounded crew and ship, only to have an unknown schooner chase him down. The schooner's crew cheers and throws a bottle onto Scovil's deck—suggesting a message or communication rather than hostile intent. The story concludes with Scovil's ship, the *Tartar*, limping into Nevis harbor damaged. **Context:** Without seeing accompanying illustrations or earlier story pages, the specific satirical point is unclear. This may be political allegory, naval satire, or adventure fiction. The page shows no visible cartoons or caricatures—it's primarily text.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 253 tage of it. He supposed that the schooner held some particular grudge against the French frigate and had chosen this as a fairly safe time to try to settle it. However that might be, he did not feel that his duty lay with either the pirate or the French war-ship, but with his own sloop and his own men. Sovhe did what he could for his wounded men and his wounded top-hamper and then crawled slowly away from the field of action. To his astonishment and chagrin the schooner left its game of demolishing the brig at long range and came swiftly after him. It overhauled the sloop at a clipping pace. Scovil sent his men back to their stations. The men of the white schooner swarmed — into the rigging and lined the rail and cheered. Scovil, sorely puzzled, cautioned his men not to fire cannon or musket unless they first saw some threat- ening sign aboard the schooner. The schooner passed so close to the sloop that a tall man on her poop was able to throw a bottle onto the sloop’s deck. Four days later the Tartar crawled into the har- oat, bor of Nevis under a makeshift topmast, with splint- Comicnooks.com