“Let us hear, Don José,” said one of the audience. “Explain your scheme to us.”
“Well, I am devoting my mind to the construction of 300-pounders.”
“300-pounders!” cried the officers with shouts of laughter and derision. “Why, the largest we carry is a 36-pounder.”
“Mere toys! Just imagine the ruin that would be dealt by a 300-pound gun fired into the enemy’s fleet,” said Malespina. “But what the devil is that?” he added putting out his hand to keep himself from falling, for the Rayo rolled so heavily that it was very difficult for anyone to keep his feet.
“The gale is stiffening and I doubt our getting into Cádiz tonight,” said one of the officers moving away. The worthy man had now but two listeners, but he proceeded with his mendacious harangue all the same.
“The first thing must be to build a ship from ninety-five to a hundred yards in length.”
“The Devil you will! That would be a snug little craft with a vengeance!” said one of the officers. “A hundred yards! Why the Trinidad—God rest her—was but seventy and everybody thought her too long. She did not sail well you know and was very difficult to handle.”
“It does not take much to astonish you I see,” Malespina went on. “What is a hundred yards? Why, much larger ships than that might be built. And you must know that I would build her of iron.”
“Of iron!” and his listeners went into fits of laughter.
“Yes sir, of iron. Perhaps you are not familiar with the science of hydrostatics? There can be no difficulty in building an iron ship of 7,000 tons.”
“And the Trinidad was of 4,000! and that was too big. But do you not see that in order to move such a monster you would want such gigantic tackle that no human power could work it?”
“Not a bit of it!—Besides, my good sir, who told you that I was so stupid as to think that I could trust to the wind alone to propel my ship? If you knew—I have an idea.—But I do not care to explain my scheme to you for you would not understand me.”
At this point of his discourse Don José was so severely shaken that he fell on all fours. But not even this could stop his tongue. Another of his audience walked away, leaving only one who had to listen and to keep up the conversation.
“What a pitching and tossing,” said the old man. “I should not wonder if we were driven on shore.—Well, as I was saying—I should move my monster by an invention of my own—can you guess what?—By steam. To this end I should construct a peculiar kind of machine in which the steam, expanding and contracting alternately inside two cylinders, would put certain wheels in motion; then. …”
The officer would listen no longer, and though he had no commission on board the ship nor any fixed duty, being one of the rescued, he went off to assist in working the ship, which was hard enough to do as the tempest increased. Malespina was left alone with me for an audience, and at first I thought he would certainly cease talking, not thinking me capable of sustaining the conversation. But, for my sins, it would seem that he credited me with more merit than I could lay claim to, for he turned to me and went on:
“You understand what I mean? Seven thousand tons, and steam working two wheels, and then. …”
“Yes señor, I understand you perfectly,” I replied, to see if he would be silent, for I did not care to hear him, nor did the violent motion of the ship which threatened us with immediate peril at all incline my mind to dissertations on the aggrandizement of the Spanish navy.
“I see,” he continued, “that you know how to appreciate me and value my inventions. You see at once that such a ship as I describe would be invincible, and as available for attack as for defence. With four or five discharges it could rout thirty of the enemy’s ships.”
“Would not their cannon do it some damage?” I asked timidly, and speaking out of civility rather than from any interest I felt in the matter.
“Your observation is a very shrewd one my little gentleman, and proves that you really appreciate my great invention. But to avoid injury from the enemy’s guns I should cover my ship with thick plates of steel. I should put on it a breastplate, in fact, such as warriors wore of old. With this protection it could attack the foe, while their projectiles would have no more effect on its sides than a broadside of bread-pills flung by a child. It is a wonderful idea I can tell you, this notion of mine. Just fancy our navy with two or three ships of this kind! What would become of the English fleet then, in spite of its Nelsons and Collingwoods?”
“But they might make such ships themselves,” I returned eagerly and feeling the force of this argument. “The English would do the same, and then the conditions of
