Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 164 Wolves ([-])

The artillery battle is still going on.

The artillery positions on the starboard side of the "Common Market" battleship have already fired their rhythm.The advantages of the gunners' usual large-scale live ammunition training were fully demonstrated at this moment. Under the command of the gunner, they quickly reset the artillery, cleaned the barrel, charged, loaded, and fired. The whole process was extremely skilled.Even some panicked recruits gradually calmed down under the infection of veterans.

"Liaison officer, inform the gunner to replace the 12-pound short-barreled gun with hot bullets. Aim at the canvas of the enemy ship and shoot in turn!" An Chu stood at the fence of the bridge with his hands behind his back, pretending to look calmly at the British. battleship.From time to time, his throat was dry and he swallowed saliva, and his body trembled slightly, but he still tried his best to stand upright and give some orders according to the battle situation from time to time.

After receiving the order, the gunner immediately rushed to each artillery position and ordered the gunners one by one to replace the hot bombs.

The so-called hot list is actually a red-hot lead bullet.There is a partition space made of bricks next to the artillery position, and there is a small stove that burns constantly inside, and the lead bullets are usually placed in it for heating.At this time, after the gunners heard the order, they immediately took the red-hot lead bullets out of the furnace with special clips, and then wrapped a layer of tin skin on the surface of the projectile body for heat insulation (to prevent premature detonation of the launcher in the barrel). powder), and then quickly stuff it into the barrel that has been loaded with the propellant package and tamp it.

"Fire!" The gunner inserted the red-hot iron rod into the gun door, and only heard a "boom", and the hot lead bullets flew out of the gun bore with a whistling sound.Due to the extremely high muzzle velocity of the fired shells, the tin skin quickly heated and melted in the high-speed friction with the air, and then the crimson shells slammed into the cotton canvas on the mast of the enemy ship.

The lead bullets easily penetrated the cotton canvas, and then fell into the sea after the kinetic energy was exhausted.But at the place where it penetrated, several flames began to ignite at this moment, and the flammable cotton cloth provided a hotbed for the raging flames.Soon, as a total of more than a dozen fiery bombs were fired, the two pieces of canvas on the middle and upper top of the enemy ship's topmast began to catch fire in many places.The fire took advantage of the wind, and after a while, the two canvases burned in large areas.

The first mate of the British "Dash" who replaced the injured captain to command the battle stared dumbfounded at the burning topsail and topsail of the topmast, then suddenly woke up and shouted: "Bosun, lower the sails! Quickly, lower the sails!" Sail! Damn it, the lower sail is also on fire! Second officer, whatever you are doing, stop immediately and organize personnel to put out the fire!"

The sailors on the British ship suddenly became a mess. Driven by the officer, they rushed out of the shelter and walked around in disorder on the deck.The bosun yelled and organized them to untie the ropes and lower the sail that was already on fire; while the second officer rushed over with a group of soldiers carrying wooden buckets filled with water, ready to put out the fire at any time.

How could the "Common Market" give up this golden opportunity? Under the order of An Chu, the gunners filled the 18-pound short-barreled gun with grape bullets, and then fired it with a grinning grin.

The intensive shooting of grape bombs caused tragic casualties among the dense crowd on the deck of the British ship.Like a devil, the small shot was aimed at the chaotic topmast deck, sweeping the British sailors and soldiers who were lowering the sails and fighting the fire, causing at least 30 casualties of their sailors, soldiers and many officers.

The huge lethality of the grape bullets prevented the British from trying to rescue the burning canvas. In desperation, they could only cut off the sheet ropes that fixed the lower edge of the canvas, and then let the canvas that had become a ball of fire float with the wind.From time to time, burning canvases fell from the sky, and the deck was like a rain of fire.

After the "Common Market" used the fiery bombs, the two frigates behind followed suit and shot those small red shot balls on the deck and canvas of the British ship.For a while, the British sailors were exhausted, and smoke billowed from their warships.But at last it was okay, with the miserable appearance of the "Daxi" in front of them, these British guys quickly lowered the mainsail and poured water on it to deal with the "despicable" tactics of the people on the east coast.

Moreover, they are not to be outdone.Many chain bombs were fired from the muzzle and hit the sails and masts of the East Coaster warships to damage the mobility of their ships.

The two sides continued tragically like this.

After more than half an hour of fighting, the three-masted Galen battleship "Daxi" with billowing smoke was the first to withdraw from the battle.Her top-sails were all burnt up, and her mast was terribly damaged; the foremast, too, was unlucky, when a lucky chain shot from the East Coasters tore the mast off, and all fell down; only the mizzenmast was present. The spinnaker is still working normally, but it is also damaged in many places, and its efficiency is greatly reduced.It can be said that the ship has lost its combat effectiveness at present.

After the Darcy, the British flagship, the Sir Daley, was the second most damaged ship.She was like a cannonball magnet and attracted most of the artillery attacks from the East Coasters. She was almost hit by two or three hundred shells in half an hour, and almost no part of the entire ship was intact.In fact, she can still float on the sea until now, whether it is from the east coast or the British, it is quite strange.

The remaining British warships - "Mermaid" and "Albatross" suffered only a small amount of damage to the canvas, and the loss of personnel and artillery was also very limited, and they basically retained their combat effectiveness; The "Knight" lost three artillery pieces and more than 40 crew members, the bowsprit was interrupted, and the mizzen spinnaker was burned. In addition, its captain and other officers were casualties, but it still retained a certain amount of combat effectiveness.

As for the Second Escort Squadron of the East Coast Republic, the flagship "Common Market" also fired nearly 8 shells.Among them, the bulkhead of the forecastle was full of holes by the British artillery, the captain's cabin on the second floor of the poop and the bridge on the third floor were also seriously damaged, and the navigator was seriously injured.Three guns on the upper deck on the starboard side were destroyed, and eight gunners were killed or injured; an [-]-pound gun crew on the second deck was unlucky. Small explosions.The explosion not only killed three gunners of the entire gun crew, but also injured multiple gunners in two adjacent gun crews.

Although it has withstood various blows, the battleship "Common Market" is worthy of its strong survivability, and it still maintains a strong combat effectiveness. Her 32-pound and 24-pound long-barreled heavy guns have always been a nightmare for the British.

The situation of the "Red Trout" is similar. This former Spanish-Peruvian fleet cruiser was not hit many times and suffered few casualties. Apart from the serious damage to the sail, the entire ship still maintains [-]% to [-]% of its combat power.

In contrast, the situation of the "Sea Astronomer" is a bit bad.Although the escort gunboat converted from a pirate ship was not hit by many shots, her waterline was extremely unlucky to be pierced by a 24-pound shell fired by the "Sir Daly", breaking a big hole.At present, the sailors on board are trying to mend the breach while covering the breach with a large amount of canvas.But it seems that the situation is not very good, even the captain Han Dezhi is not lacking in confidence in successfully sealing the breach.

As for the armed merchant ship "Nightingale" of the Pasquale family and the two transport ships of the South Sea Transportation Company, the situation is relatively good. The "Nightingale" was only hit by a few dozen shells, causing several sailors to be injured, and it can be said that it was basically intact.However, the Fruit transport ships "Penglai" and "Yingzhou" were only hit by some unlucky stray bullets because they were hiding on the other side of the battleship. The hulls were basically undamaged, and there was no loss of personnel.

The fierce battle has progressed to this point, and both sides are somewhat unable to fight.

On the one hand, the Britons suffered serious losses of personnel and ships; on the other hand, the frigate "Maritime Writer" of the East Coasters was in a bad situation. Closed the loopholes.

Both sides underestimated the strength of the other and overestimated their own, and the British in particular were gravely mistaken in this regard.

After another ten minutes or so, several warships on both sides fired several salvos again.The British, who finally couldn't hold on, turned around and broke away from contact with the Republic Escort Squadron on the East Coast while they were in the upper hand, and retreated northward.Prior to this, the remaining British officers and sailors on the battleship "Dash" had retreated to other British ships in traffic boats, and the "Dash" was abandoned in the raging fire.

The most severely damaged "Sir Daly" walked in the forefront, followed by the "Mermaid" and "Albatross", and the "Knight" could only be in the rear due to its position.An Chu commanded the "Common Market" to chase after it, and gave the "Knight" a dozen heavy artillery shells as a parting gift before returning.

At this point, the battle that took place off the coast of Portugal is finally over.The British fought with the escort fleet on the east coast, and then retreated separately. The battle started and ended suddenly.

After the British withdrew, Wang Tiehammer, with a bandage on his head, walked slowly to the fence of the bridge and patted Anchu on the shoulder lightly.Unexpectedly, An Chu staggered and almost fell to the ground.His whole body was completely stiff, and the military uniform on his body was soaked with sweat.

"Go to the officer's lounge and change into dry clothes, and drink a few sips of strong wine to drive out the cold." Wang Tiehammer looked at An Chu and said, "It's winter now, it's very cold, don't suffer from the cold."

An Chu nodded, and then walked downstairs.

Wang Tiechui looked at his back and took out a blank piece of paper from his pocket.On the white paper was written "Application for Transferring Second Lieutenant Anchu as First Officer of Battleship 'Common Market'" in large characters, and the first line of content even appeared "Second Lieutenant Anchu looked forward and backward during the battle" Wait for negative comments.Wang Tiechui stared at it for a long time, then smiled, and then tore the whole white paper into pieces, and threw it into the sea.

The "Maritime Writer" failed to seal the leak in the bilge in the end.In desperation, Wang Tiehammer transferred all his officers and sailors to the flagship, and then ordered to abandon the ship.In this battle, one of the six ships of the Second Escort Squadron was sunk and three were injured.

And the losses of their opponents, the British, were not small. The "Dash" sank after burning, the "Sir Daly" (abandoned and sunk during the return voyage) and the "Knight" were seriously injured and basically scrapped, and the "Mermaid" and "Albatross" also needed to be returned to the factory for overhaul.

On January 1, the Second Escort Squadron finally sailed into the port of Bordeaux after going through all kinds of difficulties and dangers.

(End of this chapter)