14-2 THE SEA. 



will pay the penalty. So Freshwater Bay is to have the honour of hearing man's thunder 

 reverberating along its hill-girded shores. 



" Bang, bang pop, pop, bang. You hear the Armstrongs and old field-pieces go off 

 from Her Majesty's men-of-war in harbour, and Her Majesty's Fort William and water 

 batteries. Then you descend to utter silence. You ascend again through a trapdoor, and 

 find yourself in a circular room, some twelve feet in diameter, padded from top to bottom 

 like the interior of a carriage. By your side is a huge mass of iron. You are inside 

 the turret. A glimmering lamp sheds its feeble light on the moving forms around you, 

 and from below comes the faint whispering of the men, until the trap is shut and you 

 are again in utter silence. 



" 'Prepare !' The gunner's mates stand you on your toes, and tell you to lean forward 

 and thrust your tongue out of your mouth. You hear the creaking of machinery. It is 

 a moment of intense suspense. Gradually a glimmer of light an inch a flood. The 

 shield passes from the opening the gun runs out. A flash, a roar a mad reeling of the 

 senses, and crimson clouds flitting before your eyes a horrible pain in your ears, a 

 sense of oppression on your chest, and the knowledge that you are not on your feet 

 a whispering of voices blending with the concert in your ears a darkness before your 

 eyes and you find yourself plump up in a heap against the padding, whither you have 

 been thrown by the violence of the concussion. Before you have recovered sufficiently to 

 note the effects I have endeavoured to describe, the shield is again in its place and the gun 

 ready for re-loading. They tell you that the best part of the sound has escaped through 

 the port-hole, otherwise there would be no standing it, and our gunner's mate whispers 

 in your ear : ' It's all werry well, but they busts out bleeding from the chest and ears 

 after the fourth discharge, and has to be taken below/ You have had enough of it too, 

 and are glad that they don't ask you to witness another shot fired. 



" Since the Miantonoma's time vast improvements have been made in the matter of 

 turret firing. The guns are now discharged by means of an electric spark, which obviates 

 the necessity for having anyone in the turret, and is certainly a great blessing. 



" ' And what do you think of her ? ' I asked a boatswain's-mate. ' Think of her, 

 sir ! ' he replied. ' I think, sir, that she's a floating coffin, and I would as soon live in 



. Every time we're out of harbour she goes under water, and don't come up till we 



get in again, as the saying is. We are just cooped up here waiting for a big wave to 

 come and swallow us, for she don't rise to the waves, she goes through 'em.' Then, 

 becoming more confidential, ' Tower of the world be hanged, sir! None of us believe we'll 

 ever see Queenstown, and if we only had a chance to get ashore, there ain't a man but 

 what would desert, I guess.' 



" I must draw the reader's attention to the fact that I give this sailor's statement for 

 what it is worth. The officers, one and all, as far as my memory serves me, stated that 

 she was a very good sea boat; better, indeed, than they expected, though somewhat 

 sluggish in the water. I may add that the Miantonoma not only reached Queenstown, 

 but did succeed in making a tour of the world. Yet it was alleged that her crew, with 

 the exception of some twenty men, were put into the tenders, and that she was towed 

 across the ' herring pond ' and round the Horn by them. From these facts and rumours the 



