Across to America: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 9) by Richard Testrake
Authors: Richard Testrake
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Andromeda sailed.
Elated to have sold the pistols he had formerly feared would remain on his inventory for months, he made an additional attempt at another sale. Months before, a British officer had brought a weapon into his shop for repair. The officer had been serving with Sir Isaac Brock, and had been based in Upper Canada. Serving with Native American tribes in disputed territory to the south, he had brought back a strange rifle. He had traded a dozen blankets and two pounds of gunpowder to a Shawnee warrior for it. It had been taken from an American settler in one of the incessant raids of those days.
Originally made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by a local gun maker there, it was a rather handsome piece. With an exceedingly long barrel and figured maple stock, it seemed a strange weapon for the rigors of combat in the wilderness. The lock of this weapon was broken, and the bullet mold missing. In this condition, the rifle was of no immediate use to the officer.
The officer wondered if repair was feasible. Campbell had assured him it could be done, but not in the time frame the officer required. The officer, who was destined to leave in a week in a convoy back to England, traded the weapon for a pair of pocket pistols and left the rifle to Campbell to do with as he wished.
Still believing he could make a success of his new ignition system, the gun maker made a new lock of that persuasion and fitted it to the rifle. The gun barrel, with its worn rifling, was bored out to a slightly larger caliber and re-rifled. With fresh balls cast from a new bullet mold, the rifle was in all important respects a new piece. With no buyers apparent, he made a pitch to sell the weapon to this new customer. Leading Phillips out the rear door, he pointed to a block of crumbling rock nearly two hundred yards distant.
Campbell explained the loading of the rifle. From a leather hunting bag he produced a paper cartridge containing a measured charge of powder, a greased patch and a single lead ball. He opened the little packet and poured the powder down the muzzle. Discarding the paper remnants, he placed the patch over the muzzle and centered the ball on that. Pushing the ball and patch into the bore with a short rod, he removed the longer ramrod from under the barrel. Pressure applied to this pushed the charge all the way to the breach.
With his finger, he opened a little brass door on the side of the buttstock and extracted a single cap of his own manufacture and placed it on the ignition nipple.
He explained to Phillips the rifle was now ready to fire. He indicated he was intending to fire at the distant rock and asked his potential customer to watch for the impact of the ball on the rock.
Phillips was not un-familiar with rifles, his father owning one that he had fired frequently in his youth. However, he observed as Campbell took careful aim and squeezed off his shot. With his father’s weapon, there would have been a noticeable delay between the flash of the powder in the pan and the discharge of the weapon. There was no such delay with this rifle. At the fall of the hammer, the rifle cracked almost instantly and a puff of rock dust flew from the stone down range.
Phillips loaded and fired a few rounds himself and pronounced himself satisfied. Back in the shop, he counted out the Spanish dollars required for the purchase of the pistols and the rifle and placed an extra order for the necessary caps and balls to fit the new weapons.
Campbell promised to have everything aboard Andromeda before the week was out. Leaving the rifle behind for cleaning, Phillips took his pistols with him and returned to the ship.
CHAPTER NINE
Andromeda had been kedged back to her mooring and was nearly ready to sail when a shabby little skiff was pulled up to her port beam and the gun maker’s apprentice passed up the rifle and package of ammunition to the anchor watch. Returning from another visit ashore, Phillips
Elated to have sold the pistols he had formerly feared would remain on his inventory for months, he made an additional attempt at another sale. Months before, a British officer had brought a weapon into his shop for repair. The officer had been serving with Sir Isaac Brock, and had been based in Upper Canada. Serving with Native American tribes in disputed territory to the south, he had brought back a strange rifle. He had traded a dozen blankets and two pounds of gunpowder to a Shawnee warrior for it. It had been taken from an American settler in one of the incessant raids of those days.
Originally made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by a local gun maker there, it was a rather handsome piece. With an exceedingly long barrel and figured maple stock, it seemed a strange weapon for the rigors of combat in the wilderness. The lock of this weapon was broken, and the bullet mold missing. In this condition, the rifle was of no immediate use to the officer.
The officer wondered if repair was feasible. Campbell had assured him it could be done, but not in the time frame the officer required. The officer, who was destined to leave in a week in a convoy back to England, traded the weapon for a pair of pocket pistols and left the rifle to Campbell to do with as he wished.
Still believing he could make a success of his new ignition system, the gun maker made a new lock of that persuasion and fitted it to the rifle. The gun barrel, with its worn rifling, was bored out to a slightly larger caliber and re-rifled. With fresh balls cast from a new bullet mold, the rifle was in all important respects a new piece. With no buyers apparent, he made a pitch to sell the weapon to this new customer. Leading Phillips out the rear door, he pointed to a block of crumbling rock nearly two hundred yards distant.
Campbell explained the loading of the rifle. From a leather hunting bag he produced a paper cartridge containing a measured charge of powder, a greased patch and a single lead ball. He opened the little packet and poured the powder down the muzzle. Discarding the paper remnants, he placed the patch over the muzzle and centered the ball on that. Pushing the ball and patch into the bore with a short rod, he removed the longer ramrod from under the barrel. Pressure applied to this pushed the charge all the way to the breach.
With his finger, he opened a little brass door on the side of the buttstock and extracted a single cap of his own manufacture and placed it on the ignition nipple.
He explained to Phillips the rifle was now ready to fire. He indicated he was intending to fire at the distant rock and asked his potential customer to watch for the impact of the ball on the rock.
Phillips was not un-familiar with rifles, his father owning one that he had fired frequently in his youth. However, he observed as Campbell took careful aim and squeezed off his shot. With his father’s weapon, there would have been a noticeable delay between the flash of the powder in the pan and the discharge of the weapon. There was no such delay with this rifle. At the fall of the hammer, the rifle cracked almost instantly and a puff of rock dust flew from the stone down range.
Phillips loaded and fired a few rounds himself and pronounced himself satisfied. Back in the shop, he counted out the Spanish dollars required for the purchase of the pistols and the rifle and placed an extra order for the necessary caps and balls to fit the new weapons.
Campbell promised to have everything aboard Andromeda before the week was out. Leaving the rifle behind for cleaning, Phillips took his pistols with him and returned to the ship.
CHAPTER NINE
Andromeda had been kedged back to her mooring and was nearly ready to sail when a shabby little skiff was pulled up to her port beam and the gun maker’s apprentice passed up the rifle and package of ammunition to the anchor watch. Returning from another visit ashore, Phillips
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