"What in the name o Davy Jones do ye call it?" cried one bluff Jack Tar on board a United States man-of-war. "I'll make my 'davy it's not like anything I've ever seen before."

"Right ye are, me hearty," rejoined a companion. "For all that it's a right snug lookin' craft Mebe she's a new English dynamite boat."

"Gimcracks!" gasped the commander. "She carries a pnuematic gun!"

Here endeth the excerpt. Have we learned anything? We've heard about Frank's pnuematic gun before; it can throw explosive items a great distance. I've never heard of a "dynamite boat," let alone assuming it's high-tech because it's English, but that's my fault.

What I like knowing is this: "gimcracks" was once an expression for surprise, not cheapness.