there were dozens of them , ripping , tearing - nothing coordinated , only a maddened and savage fury which did not know even their own kind : as the axes and cutlasses bit into their flesh , they began to snap and tear at their injured fellows , at the rigging , even at the guns slick with fish-scraps - a cannon breaking free of its moorings and running riot across the deck to smash through the railing , taking half-a-dozen men and a serpent with it .