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Again he gave the order, 'Fire, starboard, repeating, 'Tompions are in, sir, and so on till half the broadside had been fired before the tompions had been taken out. These horrid tompions and their adjuncts went flying on to their decks, from which every one scampered in confusion. It was lucky our guns did not burst. This was a most awkward dilemma for all of us.
The ship was under short canvass, the men were at quarters, the guns were cast loose, and were levelled; the tompions were all out, shot was distributed about the deck; and here and there some old salt of a captain might be seen squinting along his gun, as if impatient to begin. A silence like that of a deserted church reigned throughout the ship.
But as soon as I stopped my ears, he used to frown and say, "Take out the tompions, you young swab!"
It left a mark on me that I shall never lose until I go over the ship's side in a canvas cover. To have my beautiful Culloden laid on a sandbank just out of gunshot. To hear and see the fight the whole night through, and never to pull a lanyard or take the tompions out of my guns.
"There is no saying, sir; you know what a character he has: and some say there are three hundred men on board, which is equal to our ship's company. Or perhaps, sir, he will pass to windward of us, and give us a broadside, and be off in the wind's eye again." "At all events we will have a broadside ready for him," replied the captain. "Clear away the starboard guns, and take out the tompions.
"Having lain on his oars a short time alongside, the captain then formed his force in a line athwart her bows, at rather less than pistol shot distance off, and then he ordered the tompions to be taken out of the carronades, and to load.
It was very awkward for the gallant seaman to have a handsome woman opposite to him, bombarding him with questions to none of which he could find an answer. "Couldn't even get the tompions out of his guns," as he explained the matter to the Doctor that evening. "Now those are really the points that we shall lay stress upon at the meeting.
Picturesque as well as sublime, animating as well as solemn, on that bright Sunday morning, was this prelude to the stern game of war about to be played: the quiet summer sea stirred only by a breeze sufficient to cap with white the little waves that ruffled its surface; the dark hulls gently rippling the water aside in their slow advance, a ridge of foam curling on either side of the furrow ploughed by them in their onward way; their massive sides broken by two, or at times three, rows of ports, whence, the tompions drawn, yawned the sullen lines of guns, behind which, unseen, but easily realized by the instructed eye, clustered the groups of ready seamen who served each piece.
The gunner who fires stands with the hand-glass to mark the time between each discharge. On this occasion he began his orders thus: 'Fire, port; then suddenly recollecting that the tompions were not removed he added, 'Tompions are in, sir. No one moved. The gunner could not leave his work of marking time.
How say you if we put the tompions back into our cannon and fight, as chivalric men should ever fight, with sword and pike?" To this the Frenchman gave willing consent, and, the ships ranging near, the battle reopened, after prayers and breakfast, to some purpose. With cries of "Santo Iago!" the Spanish tried to board the pirate ship, but could not secure a footing.
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