He may have meant that for a kind of small joke, but she had been worse hurt than he could know, for one 32-pounder shot had shattered her stern, barely missing her sternpost and rudder gearing, and she was no longer the trim and seaworthy vessel that she had been.
"Ahead of the Army"
W. O. Stoddard
" sternpost 0 ft.
"Boating"
W. B. Woodgate Commentator: Harvey Mason
He reduced the speed to thirty knots, rose for a moment till the conning-tower was just above the water, took his bearings, sank, called for full speed, and in four minutes the ram crashed into the Alger's stern, carried away her sternpost and rudder, and smashed her propellers.
"The World Peril of 1910"
George Griffith