doing
the same.

If the loyal ship had not promptly altered her course, the projectile
would have raked her, and must have inflicted much greater injury in
the spars and rigging. But both vessels promptly resumed their former
relative positions, though the Tallahatchie had lost some of her
advantage by coming to, while her pursuer had only made a small circuit
without stopping her engine for a moment.

"If she does that again, Mr. Passford, we must be ready to return her
fire," said the captain. "Have the pivot gun ready, and aim for her
Armstrong, which seems to be sufficiently prominent on her deck to make
a good target."

Christy hastened forward, and gave the order to Mr. Ballard, in whose
division the great Parrot was included. The signal was promptly given
for manning the gun, and seventeen men immediately sprang to their
stations. The men were armed with cutlasses, muskets, battle-axes,
pistols, and pikes, which were so disposed as to be in readiness for
boarding the enemy, or repelling boarders.

"A solid shot, and aim at the pivot gun of the enemy," said Christy in
a low tone to the second lieutenant, who had the reputation of being an
expert in the handling of guns of the largest calibre.

There were two captains to the pivot gun, one on each side, stationed
nearest to the base of the breech. Seventeen men were required to work
the pivot gun, whose duties were defined in the names applied to them,
the powderman being the odd one. The first and second captains were
numbers one and two; the odd numbers being on the right, and the even
on the left of the piece: number three was the first loader, four the
first sponger, five the second loader, six the second sponger, seven the
first shellman, eight the second shellman, nine the first handspikeman,
ten the second handspikeman, eleven the first train tackleman, twelve
the second train tackleman (the last two at the breech, next to
the captains), thirteen first side tackleman, fourteen second side
tackleman, fifteen first port tackleman, sixteen second port tackleman.

The gun crew had been frequently drilled in the management of the piece,
and the men were entirely at home in their stations. Other hands had
been trained in serving the gun, so that the places of any disabled in
action could be replaced. The service at the Parrot was not all that was
required of the men forming the gun crew, for each was also a first or
second boarder, a pumpman, or something