Fox of France

It was a frigate, with two masts and a fore-mast at the center fore, and two tall funnels at the rear—clearly it was a steam-powered ship. Its name is "Equality".

Because there is no need to arrange paddle wheels. Therefore, this ship still has a complete gun deck, but compared with a complete sailing warship of comparable tonnage, it lacks a gun deck because the power cabin and coal bunker occupy space. Moreover, compared with ordinary warships, the bottom gun deck is still occupied, and generally speaking, due to the consideration of center of gravity and stability, heavy artillery can only be installed on the bottom gun deck, so in terms of firepower alone, this kind of warship Compared with the same sail frigate, its firepower is much weaker.

This frigate has only 16 12-pound guns, 8 on the starboard and starboard sides. This kind of firepower is almost only at the level of armed merchant ships.

But if compared with the British steam frigate, its firepower is quite powerful. The British steam frigate has only five guns in total, one 24-pounder in the bow and two 12-pounders on each side. Coupled with the faster speed brought by the propeller and better sailing ability in high sea conditions, this ship can be said to be the killer of British steam frigates.

In terms of top speed, although this ship is not faster than the clipper ship, its top speed can be run out at any time, while the clipper ship is not necessarily. So the ship can run faster than the clipper ship most of the time.

The crew on this black ship were transferred from the "Fool" on the Seine. The reason for this is to allow it to quickly form combat power and immediately put it into the waters near Ireland to change the situation at sea.

A month later, the ship completed all kinds of training and basically formed combat effectiveness. So the ship, under the command of the captain, Major Maarten, left the Mediterranean Sea, broke through the interception of the British Navy in Gibraltar by virtue of its high speed, and sailed into the Atlantic Ocean. After a short rest in the port of Le Havre, the whole ship left Le Havre on a stormy night and sailed into the vast sea.

In order to save fuel, the "Equality" only sails with sails most of the time, and only when it finds a British navy warship approaching, it pressurizes the boiler and uses steam power to get rid of the British warship. After several days of sailing in this way, the "Equality" approached the waters near Ireland.

The "Equality" spread all sails and turned to sail against the wind, while at the stern a long centipede-shaped kite was launched. A small man was hung on a seat under the kite, raised to a height of about two hundred meters, and then looked around with a telescope. Soon, he saw a clipper ship flying the British flag on the sea line.

The little man pulled out a small flag from his waist and waved it downward.

The men below began to pass through a winch, retracting the rope, and at the same time the boiler was fired and pressurized. Two tall chimneys began to billow black smoke.

Soon, the kite was put away. The little man stepped onto the deck again. Taking a kite into the air is a very dangerous thing, so he can get twice the salary of an ordinary lookout.

The little lookout reported what he had seen to Captain Maarten, who was standing aside, and the Equality began to turn and gradually accelerate.

As the pressure of the boiler gradually increased, the speed of the "Equality" began to increase.

"Sail up," Major Maarten ordered.

Now the speed of the ship is already very fast, and the sails can no longer provide much help, and even become resistance instead. The "Equality" continued to speed up, and the speed soon exceeded ten knots. Not long after, the boat that the little man had just seen on the kite appeared in Major Maarten's sight.

At this time, the British on the clipper ship "Resolute" had actually noticed the "Equality" a long time ago. This is also very natural, the thick black smoke from the "Equality" rose so high, how could it not be seen? The Englishmen on the Resolute knew by a glance that it was a steamer.

But they only thought it was a British steamship, because they didn't know that there were steamships in other countries besides Britain, and they never expected to encounter a steamship that didn't belong to Britain in this area. So although they noticed that the ship was approaching them at high speed, they did not make any defensive preparations. Because in their opinion, it must be that the lookout post on that ship did not see the national flag they were flying clearly. When they got close, they would naturally know that they had made a mistake.

However, when the black steamship approached, they found that the steamship was completely different from the British steamship they were familiar with—there were no paddle wheels on both sides of the hull at all. Then they saw something that dropped their jaws—a tricolor flag was being hoisted from the mast of the ship.

"This... is this a French ship? How is this possible?" Captain William was almost dumbfounded, "Quickly, spread out all the sails!"

William yelled, and rushed to grab the steering wheel and change course.

But it was too late for this action, the distance between the two ships was already very close, and although the wind at sea was quite ideal, it took time for the "Resolute" to accelerate. And the steamship had finished accelerating and was close enough.

The "Equality" quickly approached, approaching to a distance of less than 100 meters from the target, sailing side by side with the "Resolute", and at the same time began to shoot at the "Resolute" with chain bombs.

Chain bombs are commonly used weapons in naval battles in this era. Their main function is to destroy the opponent's sails and make the opponent lose their mobility.

Because of the shaking of the ship, even at a distance of more than 100 meters, the hit accuracy of the shells fired by the cannon without stabilizing equipment is often very problematic. Fortunately, the target of the sail is relatively large and easy to hit. And every chain bomb that hit the sail would tear off a chunk of the canvas. Soon the sails of the "Resolute" became riddled with holes.

The power of the sail, especially the power that the sail of the clipper ship can provide mainly relies on Bernoulli's principle. It is caused by the pressure difference between the two sides of the sail. When the sail is full of holes, these holes destroy the pressure difference on both sides, so that the power that the sail can get is greatly reduced.

In this way, after several rounds of shelling, the speed of the "Resolute" began to slow down, and Captain William knew that his ship could no longer escape.

"Put up the sails, we surrender." Captain William ordered.

The clipper ship has no cannon, and the range of the Greek fire can't reach the enemy, and the enemy is far ahead of us in terms of speed and firepower. Apart from surrendering, what else can we do?

The "Resolute" hoisted the flag of surrender, furled the battered sails, and dropped the anchor. The whole boat floats on the sea like a dead fish.

"Send a boat and order them to get into the lifeboats," ordered Major Maarten.

So several French sailors boarded the "Resolute" in a small boat and conveyed orders to the captain of the "Resolute".

"We have no room for prisoners on board, and we have no supplies for you. So, you will have to get into your lifeboats and bring as much water and food as you can. Then we will sink the ship. OK Now, you still have 20 minutes, please hurry up, get away as soon as possible, and then pray to God." A leading second lieutenant of the French army said to William.

In any case, it is impossible to carry much water and food on the lifeboat. And without the ability to return by themselves, the British could only float at sea, hoping to meet another ship that could rescue them. But whether you can meet it or not, it really depends on God's blessing.

But the Briton on the Resolute dared not disobey the French. By this time the French were already acting much more gentlemanly than they were with the French ships.

So within the stipulated time, all the British got on the lifeboat, and worked hard to row the lifeboat away from the "Resolute". Then a group of French soldiers entered the cabin of the "Resolute", removed some things on the "Resolute" that were still useful to the French, and then placed a time bomb on the bottom of its cabin, and then rowed. The ship left the "Resolute".

Ten minutes later, with an explosion, a big hole was blown out of the bottom of the "Resolute" ship, and the ship sank slowly to the bottom of the sea.

This was only the first prey of the "Equality". In the following week, the "Equality" sent fourteen British ships to the bottom of the sea in one breath. Sinks four British clipper ships.

A week later, due to the depletion of supplies, the "Equality" ended its massacre of the British clipper fleet in the waters off Ireland and returned to Le Havre. Two days after it left, a British clipper ship found a lifeboat full of British sailors. The British knew that the reason why several ships failed to return to the port as planned during this period was because of such a black ship. killer.

The British nicknamed the black "Equality" "Orca", and immediately formulated a plan to encircle and destroy it, code-named "Whaling Ship". Prepare to concentrate a number of "steam frigates" to encircle and wipe out this French warship.

The "Equality" spent a week in the port of Le Havre, overhauled the steam engine and other systems, and replenished supplies and weapons, then left the port again and sailed to the waters near Ireland. Before departure, the captain, Major Maarten, received a valuable Knight of the Legion of Honor. In front of him, more than a dozen urgently mobilized British steam frigates were waiting.