Even then, it was no trifling task swaying the heavy guns out of the holds of the two lighters that brought them out to us early in the morning from the gun-wharf, one of these craft coming under our mainyard on either side; for, the guns were long thirty-two pounders, weighing fifty-six hundredweight, or nearly three tons apiece, and, even after they were hoisted up in mid air from the lighters they had then to be hauled through one of the midship ports, mounted on their carriages and run along the lower deck to their proper position, when the breechings and side tackle had to be fitted before the job was completed.
It was accomplished in good time, however, much to our commander’s satisfaction; and, by the aid of the fish davit with its tackle and another purchase, it did not take more than a couple of hours to ship the whole thirty of these guns that comprised our lower deck armament.
What formidable weapons I thought them! But, they were only babies to the big rifled breechloaders now in vogue; albeit they did tidy enough work in the destructive line in their day, as the annals of our navy can tell, and other nations have experienced to their cost both on land and sea!
“Pretty little barkers, ain’t they?” observed Mr Triggs, the gunner, noticing me looking at these “long thirty-twos,” as they were styled, and wondering at the light and airy fashion in which the men handled them, tossing them about like shuttlecocks, so it seemed to me. “They can do more than bark; though, they can bite too, I tell ye!”
“Oh, yes, I quite believe that, Mr Triggs,” said I, taking advantage of the opportunity of giving a “snop” to Larkyns, who was also standing by and, of course, grinning as usual. “Not all smoke and noise, like some fellows’ talk.”
“No, that they ain’t, except, in course, when saluting,” replied the gunner, who was a plain matter-of-fact man and did not see the drift of my observation. “But, with a ten-pound charge, now, they’d make a pretty fair hole in a six-inch plank, I tell ye.”
“How many of them, Mr Triggs,” I asked, “have we got on board?”
“Of these long ’uns?” he said, patting one affectionately on the breech as he spoke. “Well, we’ve jist fifteen here a-port and fifteen a-starboard, which makes thirty in all on this deck. A power o’ metal, I tell ye!”
“Oh, I know that,” said I. “But I mean how many of the same sort.”
“There ain’t any more of the same sort, I tell ye, but what you sees,” rejoined the gunner a bit crossly. “The guns as is on the main deck and upper deck are all short thirty-two’s; and, they’re thirty too, o’ them on the main, and twenty-two on the upper deck. They all of ’em carries the same weight of shot, though not such heavy guns as these, being only forty-five hundredweight each.”