Forward Deck and Guns of the Vesuvius.
If one small shell should strike the Vesuvius it would send men and boat to the bottom at once, because she has so much deadly gun-cotton on board. Her crew is almost afraid to move.
"Why, I'm afraid to even snore in my sleep," said one of them, "for fear I'll discharge the gun-cotton; and as for kicking in my sleep—why, I'm as quiet as a drugged snake."
A Jacky.
"We slide along," said another; "we're afraid to walk at first. I went on tiptoe for the first three days."
"Well, I went on my hands and knees the day it was so rough," said a third. "A fellow has to learn to walk on any part of his anatomy in this ship when the sea is rough."
The Vesuvius has been described as a ship which fights and then runs away. That is, she fires three shells and then takes herself out of the range of an enemy's fire.
I think this is a good place to tell you about a few more of the odd ships that belong to Uncle Sam's navy, for no nation beside ours has anything like them.