The log was frequently heaved, and the last result had
been sent down to him by Midshipman Walters, and it was twenty-one
knots.
During the next hour the long gun of the enemy was not again discharged,
and the officers of the loyal ship were assured that it had been
rendered useless by Blumenhoff's only shot.
CHAPTER XIV
THE PROGRESS OF THE ACTION
The tremendous speed of the Bellevite had been telling with prodigious
effect upon the distance between the two steamers, which was now reduced
to not more than a mile and a half. Captain Rombold could not help
realizing by this time that the American-built vessel outsailed the
English-built. If the Trafalgar was good for twenty knots an hour, as
represented, she had hardly attained that speed, as Captain Breaker
judged by comparison with that of his own ship.
The Armstrong gun was still silent and it was pretty well settled that
it had been disabled. In this connection Christy recalled something he
had read in Simpson about the "inability of the Armstrong gun to resist
impact," and he sent Midshipman Walters to bring the volume from his
state-room. When it came he found the place, and read that three shots
had been fired into one of them from a nine-pounder, either of which
would have been fatal to the piece; and the section described the effect
of each upon it.
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