Free Ramage & the Saracens by Dudley Pope

aiming instructions: when they had loaded the gun they had left the barrel elevated just enough to hit the French frigate’s stern; the wedge-shaped quoin adjusting the elevation of the barrel was pushed in more than three-quarters of its length, so that the barrel was horizontal.
    Suddenly, to Jackson’s right, the first gun of the broadside fired and was followed by the second, and by the time the French frigate’s stern was passing the port in front of Jackson the deck was a swirling cloud of smoke.
    Jackson waited until the battered stern-lights were in his sights and then gave the lanyard a brisk tug. The gun barked and spewed smoke and flame before crashing back in recoil, and as soon as it was thrust hard up against the breeching, Rossi and the Frenchmen went into action: a water-soaked sponge was thrust down the bore, a powder monkey ran forward with a cartridge which Gilbert snatched up and cradled into the bore, Auguste pressed it in with the rammer and, as he felt it come hard up in the chamber of the breech, gave the rammer a sharp jab.
    Albert slid in a wad which Auguste rammed home while Rossi stood by with the stand of grapeshot. He swung it up and into the muzzle helped by Louis and once again Auguste thrust with his rammer, helped by Rossi because of the weight of the grapeshot. Albert was ready with another wad, and as soon as it was rammed home he lifted his hand and the men ran to the tackles to run the gun out again. As soon as it had rumbled into position, Stafford thrust the pricker into the vent hole and wriggled it about to make sure the point had penetrated the cartridge case and made a passage for the powder. Then he slid in a quill and sprinkled priming powder on top. Now the gun was loaded and ready for the next broadside when the
Calypso
had worn again.
    Jackson had coiled the lanyard ready and put it on the breech, and as soon as he saw that Stafford had finished he shouted and the crew ran back to their gun on the starboard side. By now the last gun of the larboard broadside had fired and yet again the
Calypso
’s sails were slatting as she wore round clear of the rocky tip of the peninsula.
    By now the
Calypso
was streaming smoke through all her gun ports as she turned, drifting aft to the quarterdeck, where the smoke from the carronades already had Ramage, Aitken, and Southwick coughing and wiping their eyes.
    Ramage could see that with
Le Tigre
’s transom now smashed in the grapeshot must be sweeping through the length of the ship below deck, and there could be few men left alive below.
    â€œOrsini!” he shouted, “run round and tell all the officers at their quarters that I want their guns sweeping the Frenchman’s decks now!”
    Paolo ran off down the quarterdeck ladder, glad to have something to do in a battle in which up to now he had been only a spectator. He quickly found Hill and passed on the order, which the third lieutenant at once bellowed to his excited gun captains. Paolo ran on along the length of guns passing the word to the red-haired Kenton and finally the fourth lieutenant, William Martin.
    At once the gun captains shouted orders to their crews, who snatched up handspikes, long iron-tipped levers, which were slid under the breeches of the guns and took the weight while the quoins were pulled further out to raise the elevation of the barrels.
    The
Calypso
was now ready for her third run across the French frigate’s stern and Ramage found himself wishing the wind would freshen to clear the smoke from the deck. The thought had hardly formed in his mind before the first gun in the starboard broadside was firing, followed in turn by the bronchitic coughing of the rest of the guns.
    Ramage watched the grapeshot sweep the French ship’s deck, seeing men fling up their arms as they were cut down.
    Then the
Calypso
wore round again and the guns’ crews ran across to the other side, snatched up handspikes and adjusted their aim. With