arm-chest on the quarter-deck. The shooting was execrable.
It was hard to say which were worse marksmen, the officers
of the ship, or the passengers. Not a bottle was hit:
many reasons were offered for this failure, but the two
principal ones were, that the muskets were bad, and that
it required great skill to overcome the difficulty
occasioned by both, the vessel and the bottle being in
motion at the same time, and that motion dissimilar.

I lost my patience. I had never practised shooting with
ball; I had frightened a few snipe, and wounded a few
partridges, but that was the extent of my experience. I
knew, however, that I could not by any possibility shoot
worse than every body else had done, and might by accident
shoot better.

"Give me a gun, Captain," said I, "and I will shew you
how to uncork that bottle."

I took the musket, but its weight was beyond my strength
of arm. I was afraid that I could not hold it out steadily,
even for a moment, it was so very heavy--I threw it up
with a desperate effort and fired. The neck of the bottle
flew up in the air a full yard, and then disappeared. I
was amazed myself at my success. Every body was surprised,
but as every body attributed it to long practice, they
were not so much astonished as I was, who knew it was
wholly owing to chance. It was a lucky hit, and I made
the most of it; success made me arrogant, and boy-like,
I became a boaster.