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Three whole shells struck the 3rd gun during the action, each coming through the embrasure only about one foot in width. One struck on top between trunnions and vent, gouging out the brass like a half round chisel would have gouged a piece of wood, and glanced on to the rear.
The shell or projectile is fired by compressed air, admitted from an air reservoir underneath by a simple pressure of the gunner's finger over the valve. The air passes up through the center of the base, the pipe connecting with one of the hollow trunnions. The valve is a continuation of the breech of the gun.
It was an antique, covered with half-effaced inscriptions, crowns, anchors, eagles; and it had two handles near the trunnions, like those of a tureen. The knob on the breach was fashioned into a dolphin's head; and by a comical conceit, the touch-hole formed the orifice of a human ear; and a stout tympanum it must have had, to have withstood the concussions it had heard.
Then cradle and nestled Sliver sank from view and, turning smoothly upon mighty trunnions, the plug of armor drove solidly back into its place in the metal pavement of the mountain's lofty summit. The cradle-elevator dropped rapidly, coming to rest many levels down in the heart of the Hill, and Cleveland and Rodebush leaped lightly out of their transport, through her still hot outer walls.
Double breechings were rove on the guns, and they were further secured with tackles; and strong cleats nailed behind the trunnions; for we heeled over so much when we lurched, that the guns were wholly supported by the breechings and tackles, and had one of them broken loose it must have burst right through the lee side of the ship, and she must have foundered.
The trunnions are 7-1/4 inches diameter in the bearings, and 3-1/2 inches in width; and the flanges to which the glands are attached for screwing in the trunnion packings are 1-1/2 inch thick, and have 7/8ths of an inch of projection.
When taken, it was found that the gunner of one piece had been killed and was lying across the trunnions of the piece with the cartridge only half rammed the horses having been killed at the same time and in falling broke the pole, so that it was impossible to get the gun away.
I almost wish * was here, and I at home, sorting squash and pumpkin seeds for planting. "It is a new post for me to be in. I am not a sentry, not in the ranks, not in the staff. I am thrown into the wagon as part of the baggage. I am like an old gun that is spiked or the trunnions knocked off, and yet am carted off, not for the worth of the old iron, but to balk the enemy of a trophy.
The steam enters the cylinder through the outer trunnions, or the trunnions adjacent to the ship's sides, and enters the condenser through the two midship trunnions a short three ported valve being placed on the front of the cylinder to regulate the flow of steam to and from the cylinder in the proper manner.
To all of this our own poor little gun endeavoured to reply, and the sailors, though exposed in an open truck, succeeded in letting off three rounds before the barrel was struck by a shell, and the trunnions, being smashed, fell altogether out of the carriage.
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