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The guns were the first things taken out of the ship, and, regardless of the remonstrances of the passengers at what they considered to be a waste of time, Captain Thompson had the whole of them taken up on the terrace. A small battery was thrown up by the sailors, at the two corners, and in each of these two of the thirty-two pounders were placed.
After some little time he walked forward, and leaned against one of the twenty-four pounders that was pointed out of the embrasure, the muzzle of which was on a level with, and intercepted by, his little head. Adams, the quarter-master, observing the dangerous situation of the child, stepped forward.
On the 7th of May the Federal gunboats crossed the bar and made an attack upon Forts Sumter, Moultrie, and the batteries on Morris' Island. Here the regiment was subjected to a heavy cannonading from the three hundred pounders from the Federal ironclads. Colonel Dansler, however, moved the regiment to the east, in the sandhills, thus avoiding the direct fire of the enemy.
"Half a dozen spear wounds, sir, but only one of a serious nature; our fire was too hot for them to face." "What do you suppose their loss has been?" "As far as I can judge, sir, some eighty or ninety were killed by our fire, and at least as many must have fallen in the battery; the place was choked up with dead. I have brought the eight guns off; they are only four pounders."
How are you Phil?" said Larry. "But hold your hand, can't ye, while I stop and get the stones out of the horses' feet. So you're making up the rent, are you, for St. Dennis?" "Whoosh!" said one of the pounders, coming close to the postilion, and pointing his thumb back towards the chaise. "Who have you in it?"
We learnt also, that the Spaniards had fitted out two men of war against us, one of thirty-two, and the other thirty-six brass guns, all twenty-four pounders, each having 350 sailors and 150 soldiers, all picked men, and had been cruizing for us in the Bay of Guayaquil, between point St Helena and Cape Blanco, from the 7th to the 12th.
The aggregate batteries of the seventeen vessels composing the squadron, excluding some light brass pieces, amounted to one hundred and fifty-four cannon, of which one hundred and thirty-five were thirty-two pounders or above.
"Seems to be fairly well acquainted with you, though, Ernie boy," says I. As for Ernie, he just stands there starin' bug-eyed and gaspy, as if he didn't know what to do. Course, I couldn't tell why. I knew he always had acted like a poor prune when he was kidded by the flossy key pounders in the office, but almost any nut could see this was an entirely different case.
I must here observe, that this ship was built on a new construction, considerably longer than men of war of her rate, and her lower-deck, on which she mounted thirty-two pounders French, equal to forty pounders English, was two feet and a half lower than usual.
It was now called Fort William, being mounted with one hundred pieces of ordnance: two hundred more which were given to the province of Queen Anne, are placed on a platform near high water mark, so as to rake a ship fore and aft, before she can bring her broadsides to bear against the castle. Some of these cannon are forty-two pounders.
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