CHAPTER VIII.
MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS.
GETTING IN GUNS ON COVERED DECKS.
504. After bracing the yard over the port through which it is intended to take the guns, secure the lizard round the yard five or six feet outside of the ship, and hook the top burtons just outside of the lizard.
Haul taut, and bring an equal strain on the burtons and lifts. Hook a rolling-tackle on the opposite side of the yard, bowse it well taut, and the trusses also, if they be of rope. Pass the end of the pendant of the gun-purchase through the thimble of the lizard; take the end up and make it fast round the top-mast, just above the lower cap. Have the port lined with pine boards, to keep it from being chafed.
Bore a hole in the deck or decks through which it is intended to pass the garnet, as nearly as possible over the rear end of the gun-carriage, and as near in line with the centre of the port into which the guns are to come as the beams will allow. Pass the upper end of the garnet through the hole, and turn in the thimble, to which hook the pendant-tackle. Place a tackle across the deck ready for bowsing the gun into its carriage through the port.
Bring the gun under the yard and sling it as follows: place one bight of the slings under the neck of the cascabel, and pass the lashing which is attached to the slings round the chase, at such a distance from the trunnions as will allow them to go into the trunnion-holes without bringing too great a pressure of the slings against the upper port-sill. Then toggle or hook the gun-purchase to the outer bight of the slings, and sway away. When the breech of the gun is above the port-sill, hook the garnet and the thwart-ship-tackle to the cascabel, and bowse on both. When the slings bear hard on the upper port-sill, lower the gun-purchase, and bowse on the garnet until the breech is high enough for the trunnions to clear the cap-square bolts in the carriage; then bowse on the thwart-ship-tackle until the trunnions are over the trunnion-holes, lowering the purchase as required to bring the gun into its place.
As each gun is mounted unhook the purchase and garnet, take off the slings, run the carriage to its proper port, and place another for the next gun.