Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 7, 2025
In spite of the serious state of affairs, Jack and those around him could not help bursting into fits of laughter, though they themselves were not free from danger, for occasionally a round-shot came flying towards them from the Russian guns, but with not sufficient frequency to make them shift the advantageous ground they occupied for witnessing what was going forward.
Guns were also placed inside the forecastle, as also under the poop, with their muzzles turned in-board, so that should the enemy attempt to board, the decks might be swept by their fire. These guns, however, were not loaded with round-shot, but with langrage, which, by scattering around, might kill a number of persons at each discharge. The wind was moderate, the sea tolerably smooth.
Believe me, dear sir, your obedient servant, I will dare to say that Colonel Taubmann never fired a shot in his life round-shot, bomb or grenade, grape or canister with a tithe of the effect wrought by this letter. For a whole day Looe was stunned, dismayed, desolated. "And in Christmas week, of all holy seasons!" commented Gunner Spettigew.
"Hillo!" exclaimed Mildmay, "what's the meaning of this? Just clap a round-shot into the carronade there, you Tom, and pitch it well over the heads of those black rascals. Pull port, back starboard, and slue the boat round with her nose toward them. That's your sort! Now, Tom, are you ready there, for'ard? Then well elevate the muzzle and stand by to fire when I give the word.
Every time one of their shot was seen to tell with effect they cheered lustily; and as they worked away they seemed to enjoy the fun, laughing and joking as if no round-shot and bullets were whistling through the air near their ears.
Then at it again we went blazing away like fury, the round-shot and chain-shot and bullets whizzing and tearing along our decks, making the white splinters fly, and sending many a poor fellow out of the world, when suddenly the darkness, which had till now surrounded us, was lighted up by the bright flames which darted out of every port and twisted round the masts of a burning ship.
The ship's cook, a flabby great flat-footed man, all in white, and snorting strangely, bundled up with a poll-axe, and cleft the Frenchman's skull. "It a chap your own size!" he yelled, and felled from behind, went down himself. Up and down the deck the battle raged: here a scrimmage; there a single fight; men at hand-grips; men hurling round-shot.
We were not in though yet; but we soon hauled up the scaling-ladders, and began to place them against the wall of the citadel, when we found out that they were too short more's the shame to the fellows who made them! The enemy discovering this, began peppering away at us with musketry, and fired several round-shot into the bargain. Here was a sell!
"Who's likely to be best off now?" began Tim Fid, one of the smallest of the set, speaking across Gipples to Harry; "we little chaps or the big ones, when the round-shot comes bowling about us? They'd just as soon take a big chap's head off as a little one's. I'd rather, for my part, be small and weak than big and strong. Wouldn't you, Harry?"
The brig under reduced sail, seen through the fog, looked probably more like a merchantman than a man-of-war. The lugger ran up the tricolour and fired a round-shot at the brig. The first lieutenant, springing on deck with his trousers in one hand and his coat in the other, ordered the brig to be put about, and then all hands to make sail, and the guns to be cast loose and run out.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking