May 1, 1863 AD.
This will be a day destined to be remembered in history.
A few hours after the sun rose, Nanhua Bay was still shrouded in layers of mist. At this time, a steamship carrying a group of people with a special mission was slowly and solemnly sailing to the mouth of the bay. Dozens of envoys
The members, led by two gentlemen, gathered on the promenade deck of the ship.
One of them was a Westerner with a big black beard, a suit, and a top hat. He was Reese Angel, and he was the translator of the mission.
The other one is the focus of everyone. He stands upright, with a solemn expression, and is also wearing a black suit. As the head of the mission, Zuo Zongtang will lead a 58-member mission and 137 overseas students on the journey today.
The path of the expedition.
These people of different ages represent China's past and future.
Just as the "New Hope" sailed out of the bay, a roaring salute sounded from the fort at the mouth of the bay...
In the sound of the salute, Zhu Xianhai looked solemn, staring at the steamship far away, he silently said to himself.
"I hope that after you come back, you can bring a better future to this area."
Along with the "New Hope" steamship, there was another steamship sailing out of the bay. The steam clipper of more than a thousand tons was different from ordinary steamships in that its freeboard was low, not even
The towering mast - that's the South China Clipper.
To the outside world, the "South China Clipper" is not well-known, but in the Caribbean, it has another famous nickname - the "Caribbean Ghost".
The so-called "Caribbean Ghosts" are actually high-speed smuggling ships. They are steam ships known for their speed. Until now, no one knows where those ships were built or even where they set off.
But what is certain is that these ghost ships brought too much military supplies to the south.
Since the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Northern Navy has begun to implement a naval blockade against the South. Now the Northern Navy's naval blockade has become increasingly strict. By the end of 1864, more than 470 federal blockade warships were in service, and their scale was huge.
Enough that no ship could sneak past the blockade.
Although in the early days of the war, the Northern Navy only implemented a symbolic blockade, after learning the lessons of the simulator's successive setbacks in arms smuggling against the South Korean Army, Zhu Xianhai has been considering how to break through the blockade.
The simplest way is to build a high-speed smuggling ship - just like the "big fly" on the coast of another time and space, which can break through the sea blockade with high speed.
In fact, this is also the most common method used by Nanhua and federal smugglers in the simulator. In the late war, the typical blockade-breaking ship was the Walder ship built in the UK. It had a shallow draft, extremely low freeboard, and almost no superstructure.
, the engine is also installed in the hull as low as possible. The long hull of these ships is slender, but as much space as possible inside the ship is handed over to cargo. The hull lines are graceful, streamlined, and arc-shaped with the hull
, the stern is rounded to reduce wake, and the bow is designed into a graceful bow shape to keep the bow low in the water.
Although this kind of ship has extremely low freeboard and high speed, it is not easy to break through the Northern Navy's later breakthrough. But the Wald ship improved by Nanhua is completely different. Compared with the original 150 of the Wald ship
Or a 200-horsepower diagonal engine. Nanhua Shipyard directly replaced it with a 1000-1500 horsepower triple-expansion steam engine, which increased its speed to as high as 18 knots!
In this era, such high-speed breakthrough ships are absolutely unparalleled! With the launch of high-speed breakthrough ships one after another, the trade between South China and the Confederacy is constantly strengthening. Those breakthrough ships bring tens of thousands of tons of supplies
, also became a blood-drawing machine for bleeding Americans.
…
In the early morning, Port Richmond was as quiet as ever. At the moment, Sherman had not yet arrived at Richmond, let alone burned the city to the ground.
Although there was some sea fog hanging over the sea, there were many Confederate soldiers standing on the fort, and they were all looking at the sea eagerly.
"Is the ghost ship coming?"
"Don't worry, there will definitely be a ghost ship breaking through the Yankee blockade, don't worry!"
"I bet a dollar that no ship will come today. I heard that the Yankees mobilized dozens of warships to stop the ghost ship. I dare say that even the "Fox of the Sea" may not be safe.
Get the ship into Richmond!"
The "Fox of the Sea" as the soldiers called him was the most famous captain in the Confederate smuggling circle. A year ago, after his ship appeared in this area, he broke through the Northern Navy's blockade dozens of times and brought a large amount of supplies to the Confederacy.
, hence the nickname.
These sailors did not know that while they were chatting, in the deep sea less than a hundred nautical miles away from Richmond, a steamship with low freeboard and even the side was painted with blue, white and black stripes of camouflage.
, is sailing slowly, its speed is not fast, there are two lookouts standing on the lone mast, they are observing the situation on the sea.
"Captain, no federal warships have been found nearby."
"there must be!"
Lin Yuehu narrowed his eyes and sneered.
"They must be waiting for us nearby, now..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the lookout on the mast shouted loudly.
"Smoke column found at 8 o'clock on the port side!"
Pillars of smoke!
It's not the mast. When he picked up the telescope and looked to the port side, the lookout shouted again.
"Found in two plumes of smoke..."
"Captain, could it be a smuggling ship?"
The answer is obviously no.
"It's impossible for two breakthrough ships to appear at the same time. They must be ambushing the navy..."
Lin Yuehu held up the telescope and shouted.
"Listen to my orders, pressurize ventilation, and move forward at full speed..."
There is no need to hide anything now. Speed is the key to breakthrough. Soon, this breakthrough ship, which was painted in camouflage and was not very obvious at sea, began to accelerate and move towards the land. Although it used
It is the finest Welsh anthracite, but the plume of smoke from the chimney is still very obvious.
As it accelerated, the federal navy in the distance immediately spotted them. Soon, water columns rose up around it. Lin Yuehu completely turned a blind eye to this.
"speed!"
As long as they go fast enough, they can only eat dust behind their butts!
"Damn it, what kind of ship is this?"
The major on the federal steamship complained with indignation.
"How could their boats be so fast? If they were all boats like this, it would be impossible to intercept them with the broken boats we captured..."
Even though they are now using the best steamships in the world - those steam smuggling ships whose goods are paid by southerners - to intercept these Caribbean ghosts, they still can only follow them to eat ashes.
They could only watch helplessly as those ghost ships quickly left their sight. After all, those ghost ships were almost twice as fast as they were.
In fact, it's not that fast, just about 20 knots. But in this era, this speed is absolutely amazing.
Looking at the ghost ship disappearing in the distance, the U.S. Navy officers on the steamboat couldn't help but swear.
"Their ship must be equipped with the latest British steam engine! Otherwise, it would be impossible to run so fast!"
"Damn the Brits! If there weren't some Brits, maybe this war would have been fought."
Of course, when these people were cursing the British, they didn't know that these ships actually came from another unknown place in the southern hemisphere.
These ships were modified from the beginning to smuggle arms to the South and to allow the South to continue the war.
In fact, almost every country is now exporting arms to the south, but except for these ghost ships, most of the other smugglers are just doing small business - after all, behind these ghost ships, there is a country!
This chapter has been completed!