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Nevertheless, in 1712, the Dutch purchased the forbearance of these twenty-five ships by ten twenty-four pounders mounted, twenty-five large masts, five cables, four hundred and fifty barrels of powder, two thousand five hundred great shot, fifty chests of gun barrels, swords, &c., and five thousand dollars.
Owing to the success of taking this fort we were enabled to carry on our works much nearer to the town, and by the beginning of April two batteries were formed within three or four hundred yards of the place: and in about five days, through the effects of our twenty-four pounders, three practicable breaches were made in the walls.
Ambleton!" exclaimed Christy, a few seconds later, when he saw the wreck of one of the twenty-four pounders on the fort. This result was followed by emphatic cheers from the forty-five men on deck. "I can do that again, Captain Passford," replied the gunner, who was in charge of the piece. "Do it, then," added Christy.
With this addition to his force, the commodore on the 21st of July, joined the vessels off Tripoli. The number of men engaged in the service amounted to one thousand and sixty. On the Tripolitan castle and batteries, one hundred and fifteen guns were mounted, fifty-five of which were pieces of heavy ordnance, the others long eighteen and twelve pounders.
Here, five-and-forty years ago, the celebrated Decatur superintended, during many weeks, the casting of twenty-four pounders, to be used in the famous contest with the Algerine pirates whom he humbled; and the echoes of the forest were awakened with strange thunders then.
She carries forty-four guns, four of which are hundred pounders; quarter-deck and forecastle guns, forty-four pounders: and further, to annoy an enemy attempting to board, can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute; and, by mechanism, brandishes three hundred cutlasses with the utmost regularity over her gunwales; works also an equal number of heavy iron spikes of great length, darting them from the sides with prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute!"
Each sloop bore three pieces of cannon, twenty-four pounders, two pieces for pursuit, and one for retreat; and five hundred mouths of fire were thus opened on the enemy, independently of all the batteries of the forts, every cannon being fired more than three times a minute. The combat began at one o'clock in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful.
"It has been voted," explained Abram White, "that every dweller in this town, above the age of sixteen years, shall promise a week's work on the new fort before next October. He must be there from seven in the morning until six at night and will be paid three shillings a day. The King has sent eleven guns, six pounders, to defend the fort."
On his arrival at Philadelphia, he accepted the command of one of several vessels, cruising against the enemies' barges, and the refugee boats, that infested the Delaware River and Bay. His ship was the Hyder Ally, a small vessel of sixteen six pounders. As a superior vessel of the enemy was approaching, Barney directed his steersman to interpret his commands by the rule of contraries.
His progress would bring him this year to Jail in six weeks' time, when he should act on his instructions, but these did not justify him in varying from the routine of his circuit. Six weeks is not long to wait for help in a matter of life and death, thought the eighty pounders, the clerks who execute England.
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