Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 35: Chapter 23 Decision_3

Winters also hurried to switch to a single-handed curved saber. The blade of the saber was wider, shorter in length, with the center of gravity positioned towards the front, and it had a large guard.

He often saw sailors carrying this type of saber. Holding it in his hand for a moment, he immediately understood why the sailors favored this weapon.

Its shorter length made it more convenient to wield on the narrow confines of a ship, less likely to get caught on the ship's body or cables. The wide blade and forward center of gravity made for more powerful chops. Sailors didn't wear armor, so the cleaving effect was exceptional.

"We need a few more men to help move the cannon! Come on!" Just as Winters had exchanged for the more practical short saber, he heard a call for help from the cabin and immediately went to assist.

When Winters climbed down the ladder to the lower deck, several artillery trainee officers were exerting all their strength to move an iron cannon.

The ship's cannons were short-barreled, not large in caliber but with thick walls ringed with iron hoops, exceedingly cumbersome. Moreover, the cabin was small and crammed with cargo, giving the warrant officers no good way to apply force.

Winters looked around and thought that unloading the cargo would make it easier to move the cannons, but it was clear that unloading was not feasible at the moment. So, he could only go over and lend a hand, but the cannon could still only be inch out very slowly.

Major Moritz also came down to the lower deck and, seeing the trainee officers moving the cannon, felt like he was going to be driven insane by these youngsters' stupidity: "Don't bother with these old six-pounders; can you move them? Is there time? Don't we have swivel guns? Where are they?"

Spotting the swivel guns equipped on the Bandit Gull, Major Moritz's eyes brightened up: "Oh, they're breech-loading swivel guns? Perfect! Just the thing for fighting pirates."

"Where are the chambers? Get the chambers out first." The major started searching through the lower deck on his own and eventually found the swivel guns' chambers in a few wooden crates: "Send a few men to load the chambers with powder first, and just carry one swivel gun body up; that will be enough."

The breech-loading swivel guns on the Bandit Gull were known as culverins or "mother-and-son cannons" in the Silk Country. Gunpowder and cannonballs were loaded into a chamber, which was then inserted into the back of the main gun before igniting. The combustion process mainly occurred within the chamber, with the main body of the gun acting as a barrel.

The advantage was that multiple chambers could be prepared in advance, replacing one after firing quickly without needing to load each shot individually, providing a fast rate of fire.

The downside, due to limitations of the craftmanship, was that there were serious air leaks at the junction between the chamber and the gun body. Therefore, the guns had very low power and could not shoot far. However, they were entirely adequate for close-range boarding actions.

Upon the major's words, Winters and several gunnery warrant officers abandoned the six-pounders and turned to lift the swivel gun instead.

"Don't just busy yourself with carrying the gun body; load the chambers with powder, take all the chambers with you," chided Major Moritz, finding it both annoying and funny to see the young men hurriedly move the large cannon and then the swivel guns: "Take it easy, it's just dozens of pirates, you'll face much bigger scenes in the future."

Winters, directed by the major, and another gunnery warrant officer hoisted several small swivel gun barrels up to the lower deck.

By then, the lower deck was in complete chaos, with warrant officers and sailors running back and forth, each unsure of what they were busy with but all appearing very busy.

Winters stopped the first mate, who was carrying a matchlock gun, and asked him to take two men to fetch gunpowder and lead shot.

The corpulent captain was stingy, a person of accumulation without dispensation, treasuring everything excessively.

He had everything a merchant ship should have: large guns, swivel guns, matchlock guns, swords, gunpowder. But he kept everything locked up, carefully stored on the ship and never taken out for the sailors to practice with, lest they get damaged by the rough handling of the sailors.

In the fat captain's eyes, the most important thing was to prevent the ship and all its property from depreciating.

But when the first mate smashed the locks and opened the "treasured" gunpowder barrels, Winters was at a loss—he only knew how to use matchlock guns but had never learned how to handle cannons.

"How do we load the powder?" Winters asked, holding several swivel gun chambers, unsure what to do.

"Load it just like you would a musket!" the gunnery warrant officer replied with reprimand, not looking back as he busied himself.

"What I mean is, how much? How much powder do we load? And what about the cannonballs?" The gunpowder was too little; it wouldn't be enough, too much, and the gunner would be blown up first.

"There's no time to find cannonballs, just use lead shot as canister. The amount of lead shot you load, that's how much powder you use."

"Are you talking about volume or weight?"

"Enough, you go find some match," the gunnery warrant officer said irritably, snatching the chambers from Winters's hands and sending him away.