They worked with gusto to get out the ship’s armament, no easy task since each cannon had to he hoisted out through its own gunport by a system of ropes, restraints and pulleys, in a complicity of knots that completely foxed John Pearce. Thankfully, his only task was an occasional one of necessary interpretation, and that was confined to the dozen officers, most of whom seemed a damn sight less Jacobin than he had been led to believe.While the guns were being hauled out, another party was working on the capstan bars, to drag out of the lower reaches of the holds the nets full of round, chain and case shot, as well as the powder barrels from the gunner’s store, with just enough of that commodity left for signalling. Out came muskets, pistols, pikes and boarding axes, cutlasses and knives, indeed anything that could be used as a weapon and he knew each man and his dunnage had been searched on coming aboard so not so much as a knife was going to be allowed. The sail locker was stripped to the bare minimum thought to be required, with only jibs, courses and topsails left, no topgallants or kites, while every spare bit of timber from planking to spars had been removed, as well as the hundred items of standard stores every vessel carried.
