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.

TAKING IN GUNS OVER ALL.

505. Sling the gun slightly breech-heavy, to render it more manageable. If it is to be mounted on the spar-deck, place the carriage in the gangway; if on the main-deck, close to the main hatchway on that deck. In place of the garnet, hook the stay-purchase for lowering the gun into its carriage.

GETTING OUT GUNS THROUGH PORTS.

506. Secure the yard as in getting in guns, and sling the gun in the same manner. Hook the garnet and haul it taut, so as to raise the breech of the gun as much as the port-sill will permit; hook or toggle the gun-purchase, and sway away. As soon as the trunnions are clear of the carriage haul it from under the gun, ease away the garnet, and let the gun go out the port. As soon as the gun is perpendicular to the purchase, unhook the garnet and lower the gun into the lighter, or on the wharf, as the case may be.

If the gun is to be taken out over all, the stay-tackle is to be substituted for the garnet, only it is to be hooked to the same end of the slings as the gun-purchase, and the lashing on the slings is to be passed around the chase of the gun, as near the trunnions as possible, without being in the way of the brackets.

MANNER OF USING THE GRIOLET PURCHASE FOR DISMOUNTING OR MOUNTING GUNS ON COVERED DECKS.

507. In practice, guns are rarely shifted from one carriage to another during action: it is only during a cessation of firing. While the action is going on, the crew of a disabled gun are more usefully employed in replacing the killed and wounded. Furthermore, spare carriages are not so numerous as to permit this operation to be performed frequently. Nevertheless, each gun's crew should be thoroughly exercised, in order to develop their strength and skill.

508. The gun is to be run in, in the direction required to bring the muzzle under the housing-bolt, and the breech under the hole bored in the deck to receive the screw-bolt of the upper block of the breech-purchase. This hole should be bored through the plank in the deck, as nearly abreast the middle of the port as the beams will allow, giving the block room to play clear of the beams and carlings.

With a gun's crew of twelve men the operation may be performed as follows:

At the word "Stand by to dismount!" the Quarter-Gunner of the division on the deck above that in which the gun is to be dismounted removes the screw-tap, and stands ready to place the washer, key and un-key the bolt of the breech-purchase block.

All the numbers, except 1, 2, 3, and 4, man the train-tackle.

No. 1 gives the word "Run in!"

While the gun is coming in, Nos. 1 and 2 remove breeching from jaws of cascabel, and 7 and 8 remove it from side-shackle. Nos. 1 and 2 throw its bight over the reinforce. No. 1 removes sight-bar and screws up the thumb-screw firmly.

When the gun is in position--Nos. 1 and 2 adjust upper and lower block of breech-purchase and secure the latter with the cascabel-pin. Nos. 3 and 4 chock fore-trucks, provide muzzle-purchase, and, assisted if necessary by 5 and 6, adjust its upper block. Nos. 5 and 6 unshackle breeching from ship's side, and shove toggle-block of muzzle-purchase into the bore and back it to the breech-purchase.

Nos. 7 and 8 un-key and throw back cap-squares and choke luffs of side-tackles, or, if rolling deeply, hitch them round the straps of the blocks.

Nos. 9 and 10 provide breech-purchase and assist 1 and 2 in adjusting it.

No. 11 chokes luff of train-tackle, or hitches it, if required; provides and hooks tackle of muzzle-purchase; belays and lowers.

No. 12 provides and hooks tackle of breech-purchase; belays and lowers.

These preparations made, all the numbers man the breech-tackle fall, or divide themselves to bowse upon both falls together, as the position of the gun in the battery may render either mode most convenient.

At the word "Dismount!" the gun is swayed out of the carriage.

Nos. 3 and 4 attend chocking-quoins, and 11 attends train-tackle, if required.

All the numbers, excepting 11 and 12, who attend purchase-falls, move up to their ordinary stations for serving the gun, unhook side-tackles, and remove the old carriage, under the direction of No. 1: and--

At the word "Mount!" the same men bring the new carriage into position for mounting.

At the word "Lower!" Nos. 11 and 12 lower the gun into its place; all the numbers then proceed, respectively, to reverse what they had done in dismounting.

Guns on covered decks may also be dismounted by means of a muzzle-lashing, the runner and the train-tackles, assisted by the handspikes.

The gun is run in and laid square under the housing-bolt, the bed and quoin removed, the muzzle elevated and secured as in the housing position; then, after un-keying and throwing back the cap-squares, the breech is bowsed up clear of the carriage by means of the train-tackle, hooked in the eye of a runner, the block of which hooks in an eye-bolt in the beam over the gun. If preferred, this mode of dismounting may be adopted by substituting the muzzle-lashing for the toggle-block of the griolet, and toggling the runner-block in the hole made in the deck for the breech-purchase of the griolet.

THROWING GUNS OVERBOARD.

509. The gun's crew being assembled at Quarters, remove the pin and chock from the cascabel, into the jaws of which place a selvagee strap; hook the double block of the train-tackle into the housing-bolt over the port, and its single block into the selvagee strap; remove the cap-squares, and place a round block of wood on the sill of the port, high enough to let the chase bear on it when slightly depressed; raise the breech as much as possible, without lifting the gun out of the carriage. When all is ready man the train-tackle well; have the handspikemen also ready to assist in raising the breech; and if the vessel is not rolling, it will be well to have additional handspikes under the rear of the carriage to lift it also, so as to give free egress to the gun. When all is ready, give the order: "All together--launch!" In a gale of wind advantage should be taken of a favorable roll to give the word, that the action of the sea and of the men at the guns may be simultaneous.

If the guns are to be thrown overboard for the purpose of lightening a ship which is aground, they must be buoyed, and care is to be taken that each buoy-rope is of a proper length and strong enough to weigh the gun. The best mode of securing the buoy-rope to the gun is to form a clinch or splice an eye in the end which goes over the cascabel, and take a half-hitch with the bight around the chase of the gun, and stop it with spun-yarn.

The buoy must be sufficient to float the rope when saturated; or, in deep water, a smaller line may be used for the buoy, and attached to the rope intended for weighing the gun, that it may be hauled up when wanted.