The Wasp, 1913 · page 311 of 364
The Wasp — 1913 — page 311: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains narrative text from a serialized fiction story, not a political cartoon. It describes a violent naval battle between two ships—a brig and a schooner—involving characters named James Burnham and someone called Trimmer. The passage depicts a brutal attack: makeshift explosives (bottles and jugs filled with powder) are thrown onto crowded decks, followed by close-quarters combat with pistols and knives. Burnham leads a decisive assault that becomes a one-sided slaughter rather than a fair fight. Most of Trimmer's forty-man crew are killed; only Welsh Owen and five others survive. Without seeing the magazine's date or broader context, I cannot identify the historical event or social commentary this fictional narrative may reference. The style suggests 19th-century adventure fiction.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
304 THE WASP of his horror-stricken body in brief, terrible agony. Down upon the heads and shoulders of the crowd- ing boarders fell a shower of clumsy bombs— bottles, canisters, and earthen jugs charged with powder and slugs. The short fuses fell from some before the charges caught, and other fuses were tramped out blindly upon the deck; but five of the things exploded among the striving feet, killing and maiming a dozen of Trimmer’s men. Then pistols were discharged and knives thrown by the brig’s defenders, and the schooner’s crew turned and struggled among themselves to win to the shelter of the cabin and forecastle. James Burnham sprang down upon _ the schooner’s. deck, followed close by his twenty. Some of Trimmer’s men turned and fought, but most of them fell with gaping wounds in their . backs. Some recognized Burnham, and screamed to him for mercy in the name of old friendship; but his blood was up, and he stood in no need of old friends. It was a slaughter rather than a battle, ~and only Welsh Owen and five others were spared ‘of Trimmer’s ill-conditioned forty. Comichooks.com