Another sequence of BOOMS! echoed across the cove, and the schooner's starboard side shook as three cannonballs found their mark, bouncing off the hull.
“They are still a ways off,” Charles said. “If they get much closer, those balls will break through the ship's sides. Stay away from the walls.”
Charles raced onto the deck and heard Captain Rutger's voice cry out in the crisp night air, “They've destroyed the batteries and are entering the cove! It's a Chinese man-o-war, and there are shapes in the sea beyond it. There is no telling how many ships they have out there. Clear the decks, men!”
Sailors began heaving overboard anything on deck that wasn't a weapon. Wooden chicken coops and rabbit pens soon littered the water, floating atop the waves. Through a wall of chicken feathers, Charles saw Malao poke his head out of a hatch, throw a rope around the neck of the ship's goat, and lead it belowdecks.
“Stay out of the way!” Charles shouted in Malao's direction as a gang of young powder boys raced toward the hatch. They dropped down with alarming speed, returning moments later with armloads of gunpowder, shot, and wadding for the cannons on deck.
“Starboard gun teams, to your stations!” Captain Rutger commanded, and men began to assemble in tight formations around the schooner's ten cannons on the ship's right side, facing their oncoming attacker. Tendrils of acrid smoke started to rise from buckets of slow match being lit next to each great gun.
“Incoming!” someone shouted from high atop the mainmast, and Charles heard a single enemy cannon erupt. Several sailors hit the deck, but Charles stood his ground defiantly. He stared toward the mouth of the cove and caught a glimpse of the approaching cannonball flying a few hands above the water. The ball dipped, skipped across the water, and went airborne again. It skipped two more times, its last short hop sending it harmlessly over the schooner's starboard stern rail. It rolled noisily over to port, stopping next to the helmsman's foot.
A powder boy scooped it up and tossed it over the side so that no one would trip over it.
“They're getting close!” Captain Rutger shouted. “Sharpshooters, to the tops!”
That was Charles’ cue. He hurried to the nearest ratline and climbed aloft to a dizzying height with a speed and agility that would have made Malao proud. Once there, he hooked his legs and one elbow into the rigging and withdrew his pistols.
“Rig the splinter netting!” Captain Rutger ordered, and Charles looked down to watch netting fall from strategic locations among the lower shrouds. Sailors raced about, tying the nets up so that they formed a webbed ceiling above the deck. The netting was designed to catch any blocks or boom shards that might be blasted free from overhead by enemy fire.
“Prepare yourselves for battle, men!” Captain Rutger roared, and the gunners pulled large handkerchiefs from their pockets, tying them on their heads to keep hair and sweat out of their faces and away from the slow match.
Charles looked over at the enemy ship, nearer now, and he was certain that it was Tonglong's man-o-war. He called down, “On deck there! That ship belongs to General Tonglong! I'm sure of it.”
“Aye, aye!” shouted Captain Rutger in response. “Thank you for the confirmation. Let us—”
KA-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Cannons erupted in rapid sequence from Tonglong's ship, sending a hailstorm of iron and lead toward the schooner. A cannonball the size of Charles’ head slammed into the ship's railing below, sending a shower of gigantic splinters in every direction. A sailor cried out and fell to the deck, an enormous splinter of oak protruding from the center of his chest.
“Somebody help that man!” Captain Rutger ordered. “Now it's our turn, mates! Remember, wait for the roll! On my mark …”
Charles felt the schooner dip slightly as a wave rolled beneath them. The ship began to rise again with the next swell, and as it reached the wave's crest, Captain Rutger cried, “FIRE!”
The schooner's starboard broadside erupted, its cannons disappearing in their own smoke. Thick haze drifted skyward, and Charles could taste the burnt air around him.
KA-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Tonglong's ship fired another devastating sequence. How had they fired again so quickly? Charles wondered. They must have added more cannons since he had seen their ship a few weeks ago. No gun team could reload and fire a cannon that fast.
KA-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Again, cannon fire erupted from Tonglong's vessel, and this time several of Captain Rutger's men fell, either dead or wounded. Tonglong must be using grapeshot now instead of cannonballs. If they switched to chain shot and aimed for the schooner's rigging, Charles would have to—