Stars & Stripes in Peril by Harry Harrison

Author:Harry Harrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307416742
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

A FIERCE DESTRUCTION

There was a yellow puff of smoke from the Indiaman to port, the only resistance, but the cannonball screamed over the Hartford’s deck, missing completely.

Not so the well-laid guns of the American warship. At point blank range the cannon roared out. The solid shot crashing through the hulls of the British ships. Tearing down bulkheads, dismasting the port ship, the blast from the guns starting numberless fires. When Hartford steamed on, the two shattered hulls lay low in the water behind her, on fire, drifting towards the shore. Their attacker raised more steam again and turned towards the other ships.

Within a half an hour the scene at the peaceful anchorage had changed completely. One battered ship was beached and burning. Three others were in hopeless condition, holed, burning, sinking. One desperate captain had run his ship ashore—but this was no escape. Hartford stood in as close as she could, almost in the surf, and battered her into wreckage.

“Cannon on shore, sir,” the first mate said. The captain, for the first time, realized that they were under fire. There were at least six guns ashore firing at them. But their fire was wildly

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