What is "calivers"

Usage examples of "calivers".

All over the verandah and the full length of the corridor, the black soldiers were squatting or sitting on the floor, loading breech cups for swivel guns and horn or wooden load tubes for calivers and arquebuses, cleaning weapons, reaming touchholes, and checking the actions of wheel-locks.

Abdullah, have your calivers try to drop those men carrying the notched logs.

The tops of the walls were platforms for both long and short lighter piecessakers, minions, falcons, falconets, and even a few robinetsplus at least one swivel gun every ten running feet of wall-toppatareros, portingal-bases, bases, drakes, port-pieces, stock-fowlers, sling-pieces, and murderers, as well as a few very-large-caliber calivers that had been swivel-mounted.

Those who had circled around to the starboard side, however, were too widely spaced to make certain targets for the hard-to-traverse main-battery pieces, so swivels and calivers were used against them, while other calivermen and swivels blasted away at those who had survived the broadside and the one barge that lay close under the stern.

Despite all manner of enhanced security precautions and procedures, doubled and redoubled layers of guards and the like, the maddeningly impossible thefts had continued unabatedmore powder of both sorts, of course, but also garrison guns, sling guns, and long calivers off the very sentry-patrolled walls, and food stores, along with an assortment of hardware for the servicing and laying of cannon and round shot for cannon, pigs of lead, and a brass gang-mold for the casting of caliver balls.

But when the defenders left their positions and their now-useless six-pounders, dropped their calivers, and fled toward the city, only to be almost all cut down by the fire from the ship, the humbler besiegersand not a few not so humblescreamed, shouted, cheered, and hugged each other in an excess of unbridled glee.

Now, counterbattery fire from the walls had become desultory, the dwindling number of losses from gun crews mostly being the result of long-range sniping with big bore wall-mounted matchlock calivers, but there seemed a dearth of notable marksmen within the city, for hits were rare, though the inch-or-more-in-diameter balls were almost certain to be the death of anyone so unfortunate as to be caught in the path of one.

He was trailed closely by two men armed with calivers and, a few paces behind them, three of his native irregulars with nocked arrows ready on their short bows.

When they rush this section, Abdullah, have your calivers try to drop those men carrying the notched logs.

They had held it, fought it, fought it well and hard for weeks, not only bloodily repelling the barbarians' every assault, but with their bombards, cannon, engines, calivers, and crossbows making it deadly dangerous for the savage victors to mass anywhere within range of the walls of that castle.

Upon being apprised that the most of our force was within the castle, we spiked our few old bombards, bore away with us the port-pieces, sling-pieces, wall calivers, and suchlike with the shot and powder for them.

Think on it, man, teaching indios how to fashion so incipiently dangerous a weapon, one that can let go arrows with enough force to pierce armorwhy, this is equipping these pagan savages with something even more threatening to us all than giving them calivers and arquebuses.

That was why the cavalry camp, in the lands of the Slaine Clan, between Tara and Lagore, was enlarged just in time to begin to house some four hundred galloglaiches out of the Scottish Western Islesan identical breed to Bass's original squadron, but these newcomers fighting afoot, with matchlock calivers, pikes, axes, and greatswords.

At the water's edge, hard by the beached boats, the armored men formed in a half-circle around their captivesswords and pistols in hand, pole-arms presented, old-fashioned calivers fresh-primed and steady on their braces.