Loose cannons

Any sailor who has to work in the proximity of gunpowder, knows the problems that can be posed by loose cannons on deck, and we have had the spectacle of several ships blowing themselves up in the French Napoleon flotillas, ships like the SS Gladys Nightly, a lean brig designed to sail fast into Royal Navy waters, which then linked up with an Italian man of war called the SS Santa Monica, and then there was the SS Alison Rathaus which blew up several times in friendly waters, carrying too much oil to be of much use, and then there was the spy ship the SS Adriana Lukasova, which also blew itself up in Portugese waters, and then the SS Jackina Ken which blew up against all prediction, carrying too many Arab slaves. And so on.