The Yankee Champion — page 133: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

126 THE YANKEE CHAMPION. “No. But that’s nothing. Try again. The Eng- lishman hasn’t begun to get near enough yet to do anything with his short carronades.”’ “Hal Didn’t I, though!’’ suddenly exclaimed Maynard, leaping on to the gun-carriage and clap- ping his hands in delight. ‘‘Just exactly — I aimed !’’ All eyes were turned toward the enemy, and ee | meaning of the old man’s exclamation was at once apparent. The Englishman’s fore-topmast was seen to sway to and fro, and in a few moments it went over to leeward, carrying with it topsail, top-gal- lant-sail, royal, jib and flying-jib, and completely lumbering the deck with its wreck. Of course the sloop-of-war flew into the wind and lay utterly un- manageable. “What d’ye think now, old feller?’ uttered May- nard, turning toward the Englishman. “Why, simply that you’ve won the day.”’ ‘You are an honest man. Shall I fire again, cap- tain ?’’ “No. ’Twould be of no use. Of course we can’t — take her, and I have no wish to kill her men un- necessarily. ’’ “Oh, I won’t kill any men; but I do want to give her a few more shots. Her mainmast is too tall by half.’’ “Well, go on.” Maynard patched a round shot, and rammed home a chain-shot on top of it. The concussion heeled the brig over and made her tremble like a willow bough, but the effects of the shot were satisfactory, inas- — much as they resulted in the total destruction of the enemy’s main-topmast rigging. Three more shots | brought the main-topmast down, and Maynard . : ' ‘ . em s + yes ae ; sath ~ io 7? Be Nabe - ng - a A ira he o- rae "ey — 6 . ‘ o cg! i#e« 4 + ~e ‘ » > 2 am & 2i =“. 6° @ 2s te ™ a %