Fox of France

According to the deduction of the British, the "orca" has been chasing a clipper ship fleeing at full speed for most of the day. During this process, the steam engine of the "Orca" must be in a state of heavy load operation. The British don't know how good the French steam engine is, but they can't think of it better than the British. After all, Britain is the home of the steam engine.

If the steam engine on a British ship continues to run at high load for such a long time, there is a certain chance that it will fail. So they decided that as long as they speed up to catch up, they will be able to catch up and destroy the French steam frigate.

"It would be great if we could capture this warship. After all, it has something stronger than us that we can learn from. For example, it doesn't have a paddle wheel. It lacks a big weakness." "Trembling" at the forefront of the pursuit formation On the USS steam frigate, Commander Lieutenant Colonel Neville thought so.

After the "Orca" completed the turn, it began to accelerate hard, but its acceleration was not fast. The distance between the two sides is still getting closer.

Indeed, as far as the level of steam engines is concerned, the steam engines on the "Equality" are not more advanced and powerful than those on the British ship. But as far as the propulsion method is concerned, the propeller far exceeds the paddle wheel in terms of propulsion efficiency. Coupled with another bulbous bow that is hidden under the water and cannot be seen under normal circumstances, the resistance that the "Equality" needs to overcome when it reaches a considerable speed is significantly smaller than that of a British steamship . The combination of these two makes it unnecessary to run the steam engine at full capacity when the "Equality" reaches a speed of about eleven knots.

Therefore, whether it was a sprint race or a long race race, the "Equality" was far superior to those British steamships he faced. In fact, if he just wants to get rid of the pursuit of the British, Major Maarten only needs to let the "Equality" continue to accelerate. It won't be long before he will be able to leave the British far away.

But Major Maarten didn't want to do that. Because he knows that after his first attack achieved good results, several shipyards under the military-industrial complex are preparing to switch to this type of warship. Maybe it won't be long before warships like the second and third are launched.

Maarten knew that by then, it would be much more difficult to achieve another record. At that time, there will be too many wolves and too little meat—then when can I become a general? You know, General Napoleon Bonaparte is one year younger than himself, and he has already become the first ruling!

So Maarten secretly made up his mind that he must play a big game, so that the British will never forget him and his boat in this life.

But Maarten didn't dare to rush directly to fight the British. The British had more ships and more guns. But the British ships had obvious weaknesses. Their paddle wheels were so big, so important, and so vulnerable. It only takes a few rounds to hit the paddle during combat to disable it. If Maarten had been an Englishman, he might have rushed straight at him screaming. But who made him French?

Over the years, when the French navy faced the British navy, except for the battle on the North American continent, which was won by the British because of their own command mistakes, the rest was basically a history of being beaten by the British. . Therefore, the French navy is always very guilty when facing the British navy. Basically, if you don't have an overwhelming force, you dare not take the initiative to attack.

For example, in the original history, the joint fleet of France and Spain even had a slight advantage over Nelson's fleet in terms of force. The reason why they were hanged up and beaten by Nelson in Trafalgar, and the exchange ratio was completely disproportionate, is that the first thought of the French and Spanish navies after seeing the British fleet was: "Run away!" !" The second thought was: "Must run faster than the Spaniards (French)!"

He wanted to kill these British warships so that he could become a general, but he was quite afraid of the British Royal Navy, so Maarten chose a wretched style of play: first drag the British away.

Maarten had been on a British steamship, and he knew that about eleven knots was their limit. At such a limit speed, they would drag it until night at most. Can't move. At that time, he can take advantage of the opportunity to rob.

But Maarten soon discovered that he didn't need to wait until night at all. At about four o'clock in the afternoon, a dark cloud drifted over from the west, the wind on the sea began to pick up, and the waves also rose. I couldn't keep up with him.

On the swaying sea, the paddle wheel of the British steam frigate sometimes completely submerged in the water and sometimes completely emerged from the water with the shaking of the hull, and the propulsion efficiency was greatly reduced. Their speed also dropped rapidly, to the point where they were even inferior to ordinary sailboats.

"Damn it! Let the Frenchman run away again! This damn wind!" Lieutenant Colonel Neville punched the ship's side hard. Before that, they had chased to a place not far from the enemy ship, and if they chased a little closer, they could use the 24-pound gun on the bow to fire at the target. But now, they obviously can't catch up with the "orca".

"Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy ship, the enemy ship is turning!" At this time, the watchman's shout suddenly came from his ear.

Lieutenant Colonel Neville hurriedly looked forward, but saw the French steamer turning rapidly in the wind and waves. The movement of that boat was so swift and violent, and its power didn't seem to be too much affected by the wind and waves.

"What do they want?" Lieutenant Colonel Neville was taken aback. Logically, shouldn't the French take the opportunity to run away? What are they turning to?

But Neville quickly figured out what the Orca was up to.

"The 'Orca' is commanded by a very brave and cunning opponent. He has noticed our current plight in the wind and waves, and wants to use this opportunity to defeat us one by one."

"The wind and waves make it difficult to use our paddle wheels, and our maneuverability has been greatly reduced. He must have hoped to take this opportunity to take advantage of the speed to insert into our side and rear, skim over our stern, and use the side The side guns hit us from our side and from the rear where the guns are placed!"

After thinking about this, Lieutenant Colonel Neville immediately ordered: "All ships, immediately spread the sails and prepare for the battle."

Now that the paddle wheel is no longer easy to use, then simply spread out the sails, use more reliable sails to control the ship, and compete with the French.

The six steam frigates of the British all spread their sails and became sailing ships again.

But these steam frigates have far fewer sails than normal frigates because the chimneys take up space. As for the two paddle wheels on both sides of the ship, if they continue to provide power, the power will be on the port side for a while, and the power will be on the starboard side for a while.

But if you just let the paddle wheel not rotate, this thing is simply increasing resistance. The steam frigate was originally slow and clumsy when it only used sails because of its incomplete sails. Adding this resistance, it would make things worse.

On the other side, the "Equality" began to increase the boiler pressure. In the wind and waves, the speed not only did not drop, but increased further.

The fully powered "Equality" passed from the starboard side of the British, passing out of the range of the artillery, and then began to turn, preparing to insert into the stern of the British. The British fleet began to turn, trying to keep the ship's side aligned with the "Equality", and the two sides circled in the wind and waves.

This kind of maneuver is called "grabbing T" in naval battles. Generally speaking, in warships of this era, the guns are all mounted on the side. Only when the side of the ship is facing the enemy can the most artillery fire at the same time. And if the bow or stern of the ship is facing each other, there are very few cannons that can fire.

Therefore, in a naval battle, once one side obtains a position to shoot at the side or stern of the enemy ship with its side, the advantage in firepower is almost overwhelming. Therefore, warships at war will always try to compete for such an advantageous position through maneuvering. Even until many years later, competing for the T-head advantage was one of the important principles of naval artillery warfare.

For example, in another time and space, the joint fleet led by Togo Heihachiro took the risk of taking the maneuver of "turning back in front of the enemy" in the Battle of Tsushima just to gain such a positional advantage; , The U.S. Navy, which had the advantage of T head, also easily defeated the Japanese fleet at a negligible cost.

The steering and sailing of a sailboat are greatly affected by the wind. But "Equality" is not affected by these. With faster speed and more flexible steering, the "Equality" easily gained the upper hand in the game of grabbing T with these clumsy steam frigates of the British army.

The "Equality" first approached from the side and rear of the "Solution", which was the last of the British army, and then turned quickly, passing the direction of the stern of the "Solution", and at the same time fired at the Equality with eight cannons on the starboard side. A salvo.

In this round of salvo, the "Equality" used chain bombs, of course, in order to damage the sails of the "Solution" and further reduce its sailing ability.

Because the relative speed is relatively fast, and at the same time the sea is swaying more violently, and it is the first time for Major Maarten to play this trick, so the movements are conservative. When his ship's side is aligned with the stern of the enemy ship, the distance is also slightly A little farther away, the accuracy of this round of shelling was completely messed up - none of the eight shells hit.

But Maarten is not discouraged. He now has the initiative, but the enemy ship has no effective means to counterattack. If he misses a round, it's a big deal, just another round. As long as the wind and waves do not stop, he has the confidence to slowly send these British ships to the bottom of the sea one by one. Now the British ships were the hunted, and he was the real hunter.