Chelsea Fraser

“In answer, the Wasp now lulled slowly round, firing her heavy carronade as she bore. In a few moments, the rival ships had closed; yard-arm to yard-arm they lay, almost in a mortal embrace. [Yard-arm is the outermost end of a horizontal bar that supports and controls the sail.] Terrific was the thunder of the heavy guns of both. No sooner did a gun spit out its venom of hot lead than its grimy gunner pulled in its smoking muzzle, its equally grimy swabber swabbed it, and it was loaded and thrust through the port again for another merciless discharge of hate. Like demons, these men worked at the breeches, while on the decks and the tops other men fired with pistols and”
― Chelsea Fraser, The Boys Book of Sea Fights: Volume 1