The older, wiser heads laughed at such rumors, and said it was foolishness, but all were ready and anxious to listen to the wildest tales.
All the time the ship was getting under way the routine work was going on.

The sweepers had obeyed the order given by the boatswain's mate, accompanied by the pipe peculiar to that order, "Gun-deck sweepers, clean sweep fore and aft; sweepers, clean your spit kits." At twenty minutes past nine the bugle sounded the first or officers' call to quarters, a call that sounded like "Get your sword on, get your sword on, get your sword on, get your sword on, get your sword on right away!" Ten minutes later came "assembly," and the men rushed to their places at the guns and their stations in the powder divisions.
After our division had been mustered, "Long Tommy," the boatswain's mate and captain of our gun, said to "Hay," "I think we'll have some shooting to-day.

I saw the gunners' mates rigging a target." "Good!" said "Hay," "what does it look like ?" "Why," explained Tommy, "it's a triangular sail, having a black spot painted in the middle, supported by a raft, also triangular, which is floated by three barrels, one at each corner." "Can't be very big," said "Stump." "About ten feet at the base, tapering to a point.

The red flag that flies from the top is perhaps fourteen feet from the water, I should say." "And they expect us to hit that ?" broke in "Lucky bag Kennedy." "Of course," said Tommy the confident, "and we shall." As soon as the officers of the different divisions had returned from the bridge, where they had been to report, the quick, sharp bugle call which summons the crew to general quarters was sounded.
As the first notes were heard, the men scattered as if a bomb with a visible burning fuse had fallen in their midst.

Some hurried to lead out the hose, some to get the gun sights and firing lanyards, some to get belts and revolvers for the guns' crews, some down into the hot, dark magazines, and some to open up the magazine hoists.