Short Story Review - Victor Hugo - A Fight With A Cannon

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Spoiler alerts A grim tale of maritime warfare, disaster and injustice from 1874 by the author of Les Miserables. What is the worst thing that can happen to or on a ship at sea? Fire? Shipwreck? Mutiny? Hugo's answer is a loose cannon - not a metaphorical loose cannon but an actual big gun, loose from its moorings, rolling round in the hold on its wheels - a giant battering ram of bronze and iron, capable of crushing men and even punching holes in the hull. Five men are killed struggling to secure the cannon, which has wrecked several others in the hold. Now two men set to bringing the rolling monster to a halt - one of them is the gun-captain who's mistakes allowed it to escape its mooring lines in the first place. Though both men are seen as heroes, the gun captain is doomed to execution for his blunder regardless of the outcome. A thrilling story really capturing the horror of the cannon's rampage and the sadness of the merciless fate of the man who both caused and solved the crisis. Arthur Chappell