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He rang the bell to stop her, and then to go ahead, at the same time putting the helm hard aport. The Woodville went forward, and as she met the helm her bow came round, and she was headed out into the middle of the lake. As she went ahead, her stern swept in a circle within a few feet of the wharf, just as Lawry, breathless with haste and alarm, reached the end of the pier.
"Hard aport with the tiller! Head her out into the stream!" Joseph flung his pole to his father and rushed back to Netteke, pulled her patient nose out of a delicious bunch of thistles and started her up the tow-path. Jan sprang to the tiller, and soon the "Old Woman" was once more gliding smoothly over the quiet water toward Antwerp.
What variety you have in the course of two half days yesterday amongst crowds and houses and ocean going craft, to-day the calm of the open country with fresh, balmy air, and only river boats.... Here comes difficult navigation though the river is so wide; and we ship a pilot who comes off from a spit of sand in a dug-out canoe.... We surge round hard aport then astarboard, following the channel, through overfalls and eddies like the Dorris More or Corrie Bhriechan in good humour, and there are a few sea swallows to keep us in mind of the sea.
Suddenly a dazzling gleam showed the pilot he was speeding straight for a shoal under the guns of the Confederate battery. "Hard aport!" commanded the captain, and the heavy craft barely missed the island, past which it shot at the highest speed. The lightning flashes helped the Carondelet in more than one way.
"Hard aport, sir ship on the starboard tack dead ahead," came the cry. "Port your wheel hard over," repeated the first officer to the quartermaster at the helm who answered and obeyed. Nothing as yet could be seen from the bridge.
To assist in clearing her, the Ruby's helm had been put aport, or to larboard, as was then the expression, and this carried her still farther away from La Belle Citoyenne. Captain Garland was not aware for some little time that any of his people had gained the enemy's decks. The instant the fact was communicated to him, he became doubly eager to get once more alongside.
When the narrowest part of the channel is reached I shall put her helm hard aport, stop the engines, drop the anchors, open the sea connections, touch off the torpedoes, and leave the Merrimac a wreck, lying athwart the channel, which is not as broad as the Merrimac is long. There are ten 8-inch improvised torpedoes below the water-line, on the Merrimac’s port-side.
The 'Merrimac' had, in the mean time, passed up stream; and our poor fellows, thinking she had had enough of it, and was for getting away, actually began to cheer. For many of them it was the last cheer they were ever to give. We soon saw what her object was; for standing up abreast of the bow of the 'Cumberland, and putting her helm aport, she ran her ram right into that vessel.
At the head of the procession marched the men of the First Missouri volunteer regiment, their guns "aport" and ready for immediate service, and at their head the only mounted man in the regiment, according to my recollection rode their Colonel, who was Frank Blair. He was in full uniform, which made him still more conspicuous. No better target could have been offered.
Hope was gone, and with helm aport she headed away for the beach, as her consort had done. “The battle had opened on our side at 9.33 o’clock, and at 9.58 two of the magnificent armoured cruisers of the Spanish navy were quivering, flaming wrecks on the Cuban beach, with the Texas rounding to less than a thousand yards away off the stern of the Vizcaya.
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