The Wasp, 1918 · page 169 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 169: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page appears to be **narrative fiction rather than political satire or cartoon**. It describes a naval battle between two vessels—the *Polly* (commanded by "Hellfire Hicks") and the *Wasp* (commanded by "Trimmer")—during what seems to be hand-to-hand combat on deck. The text focuses on the action: Hicks's ship has been damaged but his crew fights fiercely despite being outnumbered only slightly. Trimmer observes the battle, curses at being tricked somehow, then—satisfied his men are winning—pursues the enemy. **Without additional context or visible illustrations**, I cannot identify specific historical figures, political references, or satirical targets. The page number (160) suggests this is mid-narrative in a longer serialized story. This reads as **adventure fiction** published in *The Wasp* magazine rather than political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
160 THE WASP | the clinging smoke of the explosion to the Polly’s shattered rail. As he leaped from the rail to the deck he drove his slender bladeinto a blackened breast that confronted him, wrenched it free, and - sprang clear of the smoke. Hicks’s big guns had been overturned, his schooner riddled, his rogues cut to pieces when repulsed by the heroic brig; but still he had sixteen living men instead of three. It seemed to the boarders that corpses sprang from the scuppers, armed and alive, and that wounded men lay prone and slashed with knives and cut- lasses. The scattered battle eddied up and down and across the slippery, slanted deck. It was fought out in pa and groups, blade to oS toe to toe. Owing to the ines of the quartermaster’s yen and its entire company, the boarders did not outnumber the defenders by more than two or three; but Trimmer’s men were fresh. To offset the freshness of the invaders, Hellfire Hicks himself was alive and practically unhurt. Trimmer sailed once around the scene of action, cursing at the trick that had been played on him; and then, evidently satisfied in his mind - that his men had the upper hand, he swung the Wasps stern to the conti and set off in pursuit — (Comicbooks) Ycom