[quirks-users] de cops. N' York's no

[Mcgivern <hor...@dj...>]

Ied to draw away northward over a friendly shoal. The shell that arrived
by way of the Chief Engineer's cabin was some five inches in diameter,
with a practice, not a bursting, charge. It had been intended to cross
her bows, and that was why it knocked the framed portrait of the Chief
Engineer's wife--and she was a very pretty girl--on to the floor,
splintered his wash-hand stand, crossed the alleyway into the
engine-room, and striking on a grating, dropped directly in front of the
forward engine, where it burst, neatly fracturing both the bolts that
held the connecting-rod to the forward crank. What follows is worth
consideration. The forward engine had no more work to do. Its released
piston-rod, therefore, drove up fiercely, with nothing to check it, and
started most of the nuts of the cylinder-cover. It came down again, the
full weight of the steam behind it, and the foot of the disconnected
connecting-rod, useless as the leg of a man with a sprained ankle, flung
out to the right and struck the starboard, or right-hand, cast-iron
supporting-column of the forward engine, cracking it clean through abou