The heaviest
shot which struck our ships was of granite, and weighed 800 pounds, and
was two feet two inches in diameter. One of these huge shots, to the
astonishment of our tars, stove in the whole larboard bow of the Active;
and having thus crushed this immense mass of timber, the shot rolled
ponderously aft, and brought up abreast the main hatchway, the crew
standing aghast at the singular spectacle. One of these guns was cast in
brass in the reign of Amurath; it was composed of two parts, joined by a
screw at the chamber, its breach resting against massy stone work; the
difficulty of charging it would not allow of its being fired more than
once; but, as a Pacha said, "that single discharge would destroy almost
the whole fleet of an enemy." The Baron de Trott, to the great terror of
the Turks, resolved to fire this gun. The shot weighed 1,100 pounds, and
he loaded it with 330 pounds of powder: he says, "I felt a shock like an
earthquake, at the distance of eight hundred fathoms. I saw the ball
divide into three pieces, and these fragments of a rock crossed the
Strait, and rebounded on the mountain."
W.G.C.
* * * * *
AN ORIGINAL SCOTCH SONG FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF ST.
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