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On board the felucca, which was named the Holy Michael, was Ithuel with fifteen men, and two twelve-pound carronades, with a proper supply of small-arms and ammunition. The Granite-man was the only officer, though he had with him three or four of the lugger's best men.
She carried two carronades, for war with France was in the air, and it was Jean's whim to make a show of preparation, for, as he said: "If the war-dogs come, my pups can bark too. If they don't, why, glad and good, the Hardi Biaou is big enough to hold the cough-drops." The business of the yacht Dorset was important that was why so small a boat was sent on the Admiralty's affairs.
When they were all assembled, with Cross at their head, I stood on one of the carronades and said: "My lads, I have sent for you, because I consider that, although the gale is evidently breaking, we are shoaling our water so fast, that we are in danger of going on shore before the gale does break.
The Aurora then set her courses, which had been hauled up, and shooting ahead, took up a raking position, while the Russian was still hampered with her wreck, and poured in grape and cannister from her upper deck carronades to impede their labours on deck, while she continued her destructive fire upon the hull of the enemy from the main deck battery.
On February 27, 1792, he took part in the capture of an armed smuggler, bought at the subsequent sale four carronades, and despatched them with a letter to the French Assembly.
The latter began firing as soon as her guns could reach the corvette. "Let not a shot be returned till I give the order, lads," cried Ripley; "we must throw none away." He waited till his carronades would tell with effect. "Now give it them, lads," he shouted. The heavy shot crashed against the side of the frigate in a way which astonished the Frenchmen.
With it, the cable having been cut, the head of the Essex was turned toward the enemy; and, fanned along by the other sails hanging loose from the yards, she slowly approached her foes till her carronades at last could reach.
He had the faster frigate but he had unluckily changed her battery from the long guns to the more numerous but shorter range carronades.
The Rattlesnake had the worst of it, the fire of the praam being chiefly directed to her. At the distance chosen by the enemy, the frigate's guns reached, but the other men-of-war, having only two long guns, were not able to return the fire but with their two, the carronades being useless. One of the praams mounted ten guns, and the other eight.
Twenty of her guns were 32-pound carronades, while for bow-chasers she had two "long Toms." It was in the year 1814 that the Wasp sailed from the United States to prey on the navy and commerce of Great Britain. Her commander was a gallant South Carolinian named Captain Johnson Blakeley. Her crew were nearly all native Americans, and were an exceptionally fine set of men.
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