The following is a short excerpt from deep within the storyline, whereupon battle has been joined...

Within Hinchinbrook carnage descended, shots from all directions, timbers and canvas impaled, a tornado of chips flying. Upon the upper deck, spray upon spray of iron crashed heavily, violating the tops, wicked incursions difficult to stomach. Remorselessly was she shredded, cruelly, jacks torn from their stations, blood soaking the spots they once stood. To account the act simply as “war” was to ride with the beast, to see one’s soul forever tainted, lost.

Into the lap of the netherworld Hinchinbrook sailed, into a deafening maelstrom where men fell crippled, maimed, mutilated, some even violently ushered from the ship far into the darkened sea. Bodies lay strewn, piling. Those with breath writhed, bemoaning their afflicted plight, only to be drowned out by the thundering roar of cannon suddenly barking. Much of the bulwark had been reduced, the entire length of the railing on one side in tatters. Strewn upon the planking a tragedy of waste and debris lay littered, soon to be wildly jettisoned as the barque careened, her deck tilting. The bodies of brave men followed, tumbling, some without hope, some with breath still in their lungs.

Adams’s gaze hovered aloft, the canvas taking the brunt of the first few shots. With each new whump and pop, so announced was the start of Hinchinbrook’s end. She had swallowed more than her fair share, shot upon shot boring great holes, almost as if some beast had thundered through. Canvas hopelessly burnt, charred and decrepit, fluttered helplessly as it rode the breeze, smoke trailing as each piece fell extinguished in a watery demise. Sails flapped untended, left to their own devices, wildly quivering. Uncontrolled and drawn, the wings of the barque split apart, ripping, finally torn to shreds. Timbers hewn were cast into the sea, the echo of deadened oak crying foul as a storm of splinters flew the span of the deck fizzing. Shot upon shot trespassed through the tops, jacks in the masthead thrown to the scavenging of sharks below. Bludgeoned were spars, battered were masts, chipped and charred, carved and gouged, weighing precariously as their state weakened.

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