Daniel's elbowed hard by a man hauling on a line that enters Minerva through a small orifice above the gunport. This has the effect of (1) knocking Daniel down on his bony pelvis and (2) swinging said gunport all the way open, creating a sudden square of light. Framed in it is part of the rigging of a smaller ship, so close that a younger man could easily jump to it. There is a man – a pirate – on that ship pointing a musket in Daniel's direction, but he's struck down by a gaudy spray of out-moded china fragments, fired down from Minerva's upperdeck. 'Caltrops away!' says someone, and boys with sacks lunge toward the open gunport and hurl out a tinkling cosmos, down to the deck of the smaller ship. Moments later the same ceremony's repeated through a gunport on the larboard side – so there must be a pirate-vessel there , too. The gunports are hauled closed again, sporting new decorations: constellations of lead balls fired into 'em from below.