All of the gunports on the larboard side have been opened at once, and all of the cannon rolled out. Gunners are hauling on blocks and tackles, slewing their weapons this way or that – others levering the guns' butts up with crowbars and hammering wedges underneath – there are, in short, as many feverish preparations as for a royal wedding. Then fire is brought out, the roll of the ship carefully timed, and Daniel – poor Daniel doesn't think to put his hands over his ears. He hears one or two cannon-blasts before going deaf. Then it's just one four-ton iron tube after another jerking backwards as lightly as shuttlecocks.