Victory
“There is more sense of space than Molly had expected. Great black cannons line the side of the ship, the nearest one higher than her head, and she can just make out the shapes of another row on the other side. There is wooden planking under her feet, and over her head. She sees wooden buckets, racks of cannonballs, coils of rope.
“Each of those balls weighs thirty-two pounds,” Grandad says. “These were the biggest guns, down here. When they were fired, the recoil sent them rushing backward to w...here we’re standing, hundreds of pounds of iron like a missile, and you had to keep clear or you’d be squashed. See those huge thick ropes threaded round each gun? They caught it when it recoiled, so that it wouldn’t go crashing backward right across the deck.”
Molly’s ears ring; for an instant she hears faraway thunder and feels a quivering under her feet. Then it is gone.
She says to Grandad, almost accusingly, “You’ve been here before.”
“I certainly have,” Grandad says.MoreLess
“Each of those balls weighs thirty-two pounds,” Grandad says. “These were the biggest guns, down here. When they were fired, the recoil sent them rushing backward to w...here we’re standing, hundreds of pounds of iron like a missile, and you had to keep clear or you’d be squashed. See those huge thick ropes threaded round each gun? They caught it when it recoiled, so that it wouldn’t go crashing backward right across the deck.”
Molly’s ears ring; for an instant she hears faraway thunder and feels a quivering under her feet. Then it is gone.
She says to Grandad, almost accusingly, “You’ve been here before.”
“I certainly have,” Grandad says.MoreLess
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