Read HMS Aurora: A Charles Mullins Novel (Sea Command Book 3) for Free Online Page B

allowing one to remove the barrel from the frame after turning it half a turn. Each barrel was fitted with a front and rear sight. Together with the sights and rifling, most unusual in pistols, these weapons had the potential of being very accurate pistols.
    After a few moments study, Mullins discovered how one should load these unique weapons. One of the conical balls could be placed in the enlarged chamber at the base of the barrel, after it had been removed from the receiver. A paper cartridge could be placed behind it, and the barrel then screwed back into the gun. When fired, the force of the explosion would force the ball into the rifling, which would impart spin to the projectile.
    Mullins reluctantly put the gun down when the Marine sentry repeated the first officer’s report the ship was out of sight of land.
    Donning his coat and squaring his hat, he stepped out on deck. Looking about, he saw no signs of land.

Chapter Six
     
     
    The captain of HMS Aurora took his sealed orders out on the quarterdeck and called over his sailing master and first officer. Looking around, he asked these officers if land was in sight. Both assured him it was not.
    Mullins opened the orders and read over them rapidly. “Gentlemen, it appears our immediate destination is the inlet of Lough Swilly, on the northwest coast of Ireland, near Tory Island. We will pick up a passenger there, then proceed to another destination. It would be best if our destination were not voiced aloud. Our mission is on the sensitive side.”
    Mister Davis charted a course that would take them out of the Channel, then up the western coast of Ireland to their destination. This would take some time, so Mullins ordered the men get as much training as possible on the way, without hindering their progress.
    Seeing Bob Archer in a working party under Bosun’s Mate Wilkins, he approached the petty officer and asked how the new lad was doing. Wilkins had just finished loudly telling Archer what a cack-handed, worthless piece of shit he was, good for nothing on land or sea, and he was a little shame-faced to discuss the boy’s merits to the captain. However, he was not one to put things off.
    Shifting his quid to the other side of his mouth, he assured his captain, while Archer had a vast amount to learn, he thought the lad might be able someday to absorb what he needed to know.
    Satisfied, Mullins ordered Archer be sent to his quarters, then went there himself. Hudson was there, at a little table that had been found for him. It had been the captain’s intention to have Hudson re-write all of the previously badly written documents that must eventually be turned in. He had considered it might take the remainder of the commission to accomplish this, but he had found the little man was now almost through.
    When Archer was announced by the Marine sentry, he was called into the office, where Mullins introduced the clerk and Landsman Archer. Sitting behind his desk, he steepled his fingers and asked, “Hudson, it is in my mind to give Archer here, a temporary rating as midshipman. A problem exists, since Archer does not have his letters. I would like you to take him in hand and teach him to read and to write. Perhaps his sums as well. It may be that I will have you do the same for some other youngsters on the ship.
    Hudson seemed dubious and Archer had an alarmed appearance on his face, but they had both been aboard ship long enough to realize it would not be wise to voice any protest. Both left the office and when Mullins next saw the pair, they both were up on the foredeck, Archer armed with a smooth-planed board and a piece of chalk, begged from the carpenter. Looking over their shoulders, Mullins saw that Hudson had chalked some letters on the board and Archer was trying to reproduce them.
    Leaving the young men to their own devices, with the ship in the hands of Mister Daley, Mullins went back into the cabin to get the confounded secret packets sorted out. He opened