The Wasp, 1918 · page 229 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 229: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains narrative fiction rather than a political cartoon. It describes a three-way naval engagement involving Commander Scovil's damaged sloop, a French frigate (the "brig"), and a white schooner. The text recounts a battle where the schooner attacks the French frigate while Scovil tends to his wounded vessel and crew. Scovil assumes the schooner has a personal vendetta against the French. However, the schooner then abandons its target and pursues Scovil's sloop instead—surprising and alarming him. Without seeing illustrations or knowing *The Wasp*'s publication date, the satirical intent remains unclear. This could be allegory for American-French-British naval rivalries, or commentary on unexpected alliances and betrayals, but the text alone doesn't confirm the specific historical or political reference.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
200 THE oe sloop, sadly splintered, and with a chird of her | crew dead ,or wounded, drew away from her big antagonist as fast as her crippled condition would permit. _~ The white schooner, now about a quarter \ of a mile away from the brig, calmly continued her target-practice with her big bow-chaser and the brig as her target. She shifted her ground constantly: The brig returned her attention somewhat “wildly. The schooner seemed to possess a very fine gun and an exceptional oe for his wounded men and his wounded top- — hamper and then crawled slowly away from the field of action. Commander Scovil thanked Heaven for the amazing thing that had happened and took full — advantage of it. He supposed that the schooner — held some particular grudge against the French frigate and had chosen this as a fairly safe ‘time to try to settle it. However that might be, he did not feel that his duty lay with either the pirate or the French war-ship, but with his own sloop and his own men. So he did what he could _ To his astonishment and chagrin the schooner left its game of demolishing the brig atlongrange and came swiftly after him. It overhauled the icomicbooks:cor