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"Lie down out of that fore-rigging," shouted Wilder, through a deck trumpet; "lie down; all, but the mate, lie down!" His words were borne past the inattentive ears of the excited and mortified followers of Earing, but for once they failed of their effect. Each man was too earnestly bent on his purpose to listen to the sounds of recall.
"I don't see a sign of motion on the stranger's decks." "Load again with solid shot, then," directed the gunboat's young commander. "This time hit her square in the fore-rigging." "I'll step below and sight the piece myself," replied Ensign Fullerton. A few moments later the executive officer reported the port bow gun in readiness for service. "Fire whenever you are ready, Mr.
The Janson had now crossed the bar, and was fast approaching Fort Sumpter. Manuel had overheard enough of the conversation to awaken fears for his own safety. Arising from the mattrass, in a manner indicating his feeble condition, he called Tommy, and walking forward, leaned over the rail near the fore-rigging, and inquired what the Captain and the pilot were talking about.
"No, indeed," agreed the Captain. "Still, it is only by making these experiments with a new ship that we can learn just how far she may be depended upon to do a certain thing at a critical moment, and the lesson is a most useful one to learn. It seems inclined to clear a bit, I think, for surely that is the French ship I see yonder there, just clear of the fore-rigging."
"The bill of it, just abaft the fore-rigging to port, is now spattered with the poor little chap's brains. I wonder nobody observed it before, sir." "He would, therefore, have been killed instantly and did not suffer any pain," said the captain. "Poor young fellow, poor young fellow! He was a most promising lad and always smart at his duty!"
Colin had been aboard a man-of-war, but there was no such discipline as this. The words were scarcely spoken, when four of the men had the dory over the starboard rail, while eight of the men tailed on to the painter of the seine-boat and brought it to the port fore-rigging. "Tops'l halyards. Lively now!"
Her courses were again hauled up, and discovered her lee fore-rigging, bowsprit, cat-heads, and forecastle, crowded with men ready for the dash on board, as soon as the vessels should come in contact Newton stood on one of the forecastle guns surrounded by his men; not a word was spoken on board of the Windsor Castle, as they watched their advancing enemy.
"I looked on while the mate called that troublesome malcontent down from aloft, where he had reported the paral seizing of the fore royal yard adrift without saying sir to Mr. Parker. I watched tranquilly, while the big, whiskered first mate, meeting the man as he dropped from the fore-rigging to the deck, received a threshing of fists and kicks that laid him out.
As he did not exactly address me, I made no reply. We immediately went up the fore-rigging, but could only see a long faint line, distinguished from the ocean and the sky by the difference of tint. It was the coast of Georgia, the eastern portion of which is but slightly elevated above the water, though a hilly region exists in the northern part of the State.
Again came the flash, the jarring concussion, the jet of white smoke; and a moment later young Keene, who, in his excitement, had scrambled half-way up the fore-rigging, to note the effect of the shot better, gave a cheer of exultation. "Hurrah!" he yelled; "bravo, Thompson! well shot clean through his topsail, and a near shave of clipping the topmast out of her."
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