Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/201

 both skill and physical capacity, in which our sailors excelled. The comparative lightness of the gun, and the simplicity of its mounting, permitted of great variety in the exercise. If a carriage was disabled, the gun could be dismounted without delay. A frequent evolution was to transport a gun from one end of the ship to the other. The sailing trim of a vessel was often altered in this way. The method of giving elevation to the gun was exceedingly crude. Wooden inclined planes called quoins were pushed under the breech, by which the muzzle was elevated or depressed. They were marked in degrees, but were exceedingly likely to be displaced by the movement of the gun. The marking usually took place after the ship was commissioned, and was not unfrequently delayed for a considerable period. It depended on the zeal of the gunner. This recalls to my mind a certain captain, well known for his great faculty of exaggeration, who sent for his gunner some time after commissioning a ship, and said to him: 'Mr Bluelights, are all the quoins marked?' 'Yes, sir,' promptly replied the other. The captain, having good reason to know that this was not the case, merely said, 'I will just go round the gun deck.' Not a single quoin was marked. Turning to his subordinate, he quietly observed, ’Mr Bluelights, you are the biggest liar in this ship.' The other simply looked at him and retorted, no less calmly, 'No, sir, I am not,' with a slight emphasis on the pronoun.

These guns were naturally very inaccurate, and could not be otherwise, independently of the rude methods