Leftenant Graham was familiar with the ship's Captain. They had convalesced together in Portsmouth before being assigned to the [i]Pegasus[/i]. "Digger" was curious to see the new Brig. Although he was accustomed to the heavier armed first rate ship, he knew the advantages of the smaller Brig and was interested in his new assignment as Gunnery Officer.

This day, Leftenant Graham was assigned officer of the deck (OOD). He would stand at the top of the gangway, salute the boarding sailors in his dress blues and his solitary Campaign medal denoting his participation in the Battle of Trafalgar. Part of his duty was to size up the crew as they boarded. They appeared to be disciplined enough to be in uniform, but only time would indicate whether they could perform their tasks within the parameters of the situation. He was really curious to see how much speed the old girl could take with a full head of steam.

The day Leftenant Hamish Graham arrived on board, he inspected the gun decks after stowing his personal belongings in his quarters. As Gunnery Officer, he had the third billet on the port side of the Brig. He would share it with an Ensign who would assist him as a Gunnery Division officer. The small nimble vessel had a total of twenty-eight canon on the solitary gun deck. Two swivel mounted gatling guns were mounted both port and starboard on the foc'sil and a third up in the crow's nest.

On the gun deck, fourteen 24-pound cannons each with a crew of one Automatron and two humans. The weapon started in the rear position, its wheels butted against the blocks towards the inside of the ship. The human loader would load and prime the weapon making it ready to fire. Once the weapon was up, he would call, "gun up!" Next, the Automatron would then push the muzzle of the piece so it was in the forward position, its forward wheels touching the forward blocks and the muzzle sticking out of the portal. The gunner readied the lanyard by inserting it into the fuze and eyeballing what targets lay in front of it. Once the command of fire was given by the Gunnery officer or the gunnery Division Commander, he would pull the lanyard thereby discharging the piece and repeating the loading process once more.

Leftenant Hamish Graham was impressed with this new Ionized cannons and believed they would have a greater impact than the older pieces. He was sad not to see any 36-Pounders and waited to see the gatling guns in action rather than the shotgun like blast of the Carronades which raked the French ships on the [i]HMS Royal Sovereign.[/i] But he was no longer with the Sovereign. He'd lost many mates on that old lady. A proud ships she were.