The Wasp, 1913 · page 268 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 268: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a text passage (Chapter XV) from what appears to be a serialized adventure story, not a political cartoon or satirical comic. The page contains no illustrations or visual satire. The narrative describes James Burnham, a successful privateer or pirate captain, whose crew is loyal and prosperous. He maintains an alliance with fellow captain John Trimmer despite advice from his officers (particularly "Slim Sam") to abandon him. The story then recounts how Burnham and Trimmer's ships encounter each other near Barbuda, revealing that Trimmer's fortunes have declined—he's suffered military defeats against merchant vessels and faced other reversals. This appears to be adventure fiction focusing on maritime privateering/piracy, likely from the 18th or 19th century based on the language and subject matter. Without seeing the illustrations that likely accompanied this serialized story in *The Wasp* magazine, the satirical or comedic intent remains unclear from the text alone.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
XV. AMES BURNHAM prospered exceedingly. No undertaking of his miscarried. His men piled up plunder twice as fast as they had piled it up when they sailed with John Trimmer. From Slim Sam to the newest recruit they were ready to follow him anywhere. The engagement with the French war-ship proved their faith in his prowess and luck. Slim Sam and his other officers advised him constantly to break with Trimmer ; but this he refused to do so long as Trimmer kept faith with him. Several weeks after the engagement with the Frenchman Burnham’s schooner ran across Trim- mer’s schooner off the little island of Barbuda. It seems that John Trimmer’s luck had deserted him of late; or perhaps it was that he missed the sage advice of Slim Sam. However that may be, he had suffered several reverses. He had twice been beaten ~ off by heavily gunned merchantmen; and once he had taken a ship after hard fighting and found noth- Comichbooks.com