The Wasp, 1918 · page 170 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 170: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is narrative text—likely serialized fiction or a literary excerpt—rather than a political cartoon. It describes a violent naval engagement between crews of two ships: the *Polly* (apparently a pirate vessel) and a white schooner. The passage chronicles a brutal hand-to-hand battle where James Burnham, a fighter of apparently exceptional skill, engages multiple opponents including a pirate named Hicks, whom he fatally wounds. The text emphasizes casualty counts: of 28 men from the schooner who boarded the *Polly*, only 5 remain unwounded. **Context for modern readers:** This appears to be 19th-century adventure fiction, possibly about piracy or naval combat. Without seeing surrounding pages, it's unclear what political satire—if any—*The Wasp* intended here, or whether this was satirical at all versus straightforward entertainment content.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE WASP ves 161 of the brig. Some of the Polly's uninvited guests cursed like fiends upon seeing that their captain did not intend to send another boat to their help; but they fought all the more furiously for this knowledge. James Burnham gave no thought to anything but the devilish work in hand. He undertook and dispatched three single engagements in masterly style and then came face to face with Hicks. He did not know the short, heavy-set - fellow with the black beard and the brandished cutlass for the redoubtable pirate ; but if it had been the evil one himself he would not have © cared. He ran Hicks through the top of the right lung and passed on along the slippery deck. Twenty minutes later the last of the Polly’s crew gave up his black soul through a red gash in his breast. Of the twenty-eight who had left the white schooner in the three boats, only eighteen had come over the Polly’s rail. Of the eighteen, six now lay dead, seven sat or crawled upon the deck, grievously wounded, and five remained on their feet. Of the five, only ae ae and one other had escaped without a scratch. And yet Burnham had been the first over the rail, the comichooks.com