GDG- Re: Thumbing the piece ... you could use another extremity of the ha...

[Batrinque at aol.com]

Somewhat apropos of this discussion, I came across an interesting pre-Civil  
War account of an artillery accident. It is excerpted in an appendix to Mark  
Adkin's "The Charge: The Real Reason the Light Brigade Was Lost" and quotes an 
 1830 British memoir:
 
One occurrence I witnessed here [was] almost incredible: a Portugese  
governor arrived at Columbo, early in the year 1811; on the firing of the  salute, 
Gunner Richard Clark was blown from the mouth of his gun right into the  air, 
and alighted upon a rock at a considerable distance in the harbour, yet  escaped 
without a bone being broken, almost unhurt.  It was the most  miraculous 
escape I ever witnessed; he was but an awkward soldier at the best;  the gun of 
which he was No.1 [the spongeman], went off by accident ...  The  gun was just 
loaded when she went off, through the negligence of  Clark in  not sponging 
properly.  He was not at his proper distance, like the other  man, nor yet near 
enough to receive the whole flash.  To the astonishment  of everyone, he was 
seen in the air, the sponge-staff grasped in his right hand,  the hammerhead 
downwards, which first struck the rock as he alighted on his  breech.  The rock 
was thickly covered in seaweed.  A party was sent  down to bring up the body, 
as all concluded him killed on the spot; he was  brought up only stunned and 
slightly singed, and was at his duty again in a few  days; while the No. 5 who 
served the vent, had his thumb, with which the  motion-hole is stopped during 
loading, so severely burned, it was feared he must  have lost it, and it was 
only saved by the skill of the surgeon ...  If the  gun goes off in loading, the 
thumb is witness whether he [the ventsman] did his  duty or not. if it is 
burned he receives praise, if it is not he is  punished.  The thumb is sometimes 
so severely injured that amputation is  necessary.  

Bruce  Trinque
41°37'52"N    72°22'29"W






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