The Wasp, 1918 · page 118 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 118: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page recounts fictional events involving the ship *Wasp* and British colonial authorities. A governor and Captain Moore learn from a shipmaster that the *Wasp* has engaged in piracy—destroying cargo, murdering sailors, and sinking vessels in sight of English-governed land. The officials are outraged not by piracy itself (which they note was committed by earlier figures like Duval, Deck, and Hellfire Hicks) but by the *audacity* of attacking British crown property and representatives so openly and flagrantly. The satire likely targets either incompetent colonial administration or the brazenness of the *Wasp's* captain. The page concludes with a frigate departing to pursue the *Wasp*, humorously noting it carries "at least half a dozen" of Kitty Trimmer's lovesick suitors—suggesting comedic romantic subplots intertwine with the naval action. Without seeing illustrations or prior context, the specific political target remains unclear.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP 109 case the despoiled ship had been sent to a deep- sea grave after her crew. The governor and Captain Moore were horri- fied and infuriated by the shipmaster’s story. They might well demand to know what the world was coming to—which they did. They demanded the information of each other, and of the master of the barque. They pointed the question with shaking fists and embellished it with terrific sea-oaths—for the governor, too had once commanded a ship. Their .faces darkened from red to purple. Piracy was no new thing to them; but this spoiling of cargoes, murdering of honest sea- men, and scuttling of honest hulls in fair view of land—of land owned and governed by the English crown—was too flagrant a thing for _ them to consider with any degree of composure. — Neither Duval, Deck, nor Hellfire Hicks had even been guilty of such insolence. These deeds of the Wasp were slaps in the faces of their majesties’ representatives, and of their majesties’ ships. oe : The frigate departed for the field of the Wasp’s activities three hours later with at least half-a __dozen of Kitty Trimmer’s love-lorn swains aboard. H 1 comichooks.com