"Turn the boat around and use incendiary bombs to light the boat on fire." Dong Tianpeng shouted loudly.
Just now, all the guns on the port side had been fired. But the starboard side was still loaded. The first mate immediately turned the rudder to port, and the Hengshan turned sharply to the port side, drew an arc on the sea, and then aimed the starboard side at the sea.
Demon armed merchant ship.
Looking out from the gun window on the starboard side, one can see the battered Kraken, and two armed merchant ships, the Nautilus and the Saint. These three ships are all behind the Prince.
"Attack No. 1 to No. 6 gun positions on the Kraken. Replace with incendiary bombs." the gunnery commander shouted loudly.
The six artillery groups immediately took out the spherical solid bullets they had originally loaded and reloaded them with forty kilograms of pointed cylindrical shells. The shells were filled with fertilizer explosives, magnesium powder, aluminum powder, and white phosphorus.
"Incendiary bombs, launch."
Boom boom boom! Thick smoke and flames spewed out from the gun windows No. 1 to No. 6 on the starboard side.
At a distance of three hundred meters, it is at the optimal shooting distance. This kind of long-barreled cannon can shoot directly within five hundred meters. The shells are fired very accurately.
Of the six shells, three hit, all hitting the stern of the ship. Because at this time, the Kraken was facing the Hengshan, which was lying sideways.
Three shells penetrated the floor-to-ceiling glass window of the third-story room at the stern of the ship and exploded inside the poop of the ship. The huge explosion directly blew away the entire stern of the ship, and the remaining part ignited a raging fire.
The ship's stern and above the waterline were almost completely destroyed. The captain, first mate and other command personnel were directly hit by the explosion and were unable to be found.
Because the center of the explosion was on the second deck of the ship, all the remaining gun windows in the entire ship were spitting fire. Countless debris, including broken limbs, weapon fragments, and thick smoke from various furniture
Sprayed out of the window.
Immediately afterwards, the ammunition in the gun warehouse and the gunpowder magazine in the bottom warehouse were ignited, and the ammunition exploded. There was another earth-shaking loud noise.
The entire ship was blown into two pieces from the middle of the bottom compartment. The entire ship cracked from the middle, and seawater poured in violently. The two hull sections immediately tilted and sank almost in an instant.
In addition to a whirlpool and floating debris on the sea, there were drowned sailors struggling to cry for help.
The battlefield appeared but in the silence of time, no one expected that incendiary bombs could be so powerful against sail warships.
The little girl also had a big mouth and was shocked.
"Madam, the reason why we had such a good effect is that we fired the incendiary bomb into the cabin under the middle deck from the stern direction, which is the most vulnerable. When the incendiary bomb exploded, huge flames broke through the deck upwards and ignited the sails.
It penetrated two decks downwards and detonated both the gun storehouse and the bottom gunpowder magazine." Chief Officer Huang Hai explained.
"It turns out that if we hit the side of the ship with incendiary bombs, it might not have such a good effect. It seems that we have found a loophole to attack Western sailing ships. Our ships are very maneuverable, so we can circle with them and then seize the T-head.
Hit their butts with incendiary bombs. Hahaha." The little girl said by analogy.
"Thank you, madam. There is a steel needle at the tip of the incendiary bomb. If it cannot penetrate the side of the enemy ship and explode inside the cabin, it will pierce it, and then the fuse of the shell will detonate. This will prevent the shell from being
The side panels of the ship bounce off, ensuring that the explosion destroys the side of the ship," Dong Tianpeng explained.
"Now it seems that it is best for us to compete with their maneuverability, seize the T-front, go around the stern of their ship and use incendiary bombs or high-explosive grenades to penetrate the inside of their hull."
Count Masfeld was also shocked. These damn pirate ships actually had such powerful artillery. The Kraken was after all an armed merchant ship of six to seven hundred tons. Not to mention a crushing presence on the seas of East Asia.
, but it’s definitely not too small.
After only two rounds of artillery fire, it was blown into two pieces. Apparently, they detonated the Kraken's gunpowder magazine.
"How did they do it?" Earl Masfield asked with trembling hands.
Theodore thought for a while and said: "Your Excellency, I don't know how they did it. This is obviously not a shell fired by a mortar."
Of course this is not the case. The mortar is a curved-firing cannon, while this is obviously a direct-firing cannon.
"Perhaps they put iron balls in the furnace, heated them red and put them into the gun chamber. Then they hit the gun chamber from the stern of the ship, causing a fatal explosion."
Theodore couldn't explain the current situation, so he had to explain reluctantly.
After all, the Swedish army did this three years ago.
Red-hot iron balls were used as artillery shells to bombard the Russian artillery. As a result, the Russian artillery was lazy and piled a large number of gunpowder barrels on the artillery positions. As a result, they were ignited, causing a big explosion, which directly destroyed the artillery positions.
Because there is a piece of cork one centimeter thick between the propellant and the solid iron ball to seal the barrel and prevent air leakage. Therefore, the red-hot iron ball will not ignite the propellant.
"General Theodore, my loyal friend, your opinion is right. We cannot continue to fight. We must retreat immediately." Earl Masfeld is not a fool. This African hyena-like crotch-picking tactic would be replaced by
No one can stand it.
The stern is the weak point of all Western warships. This is the comfortable officer's cabin. For ventilation, there are corridors and floor-to-ceiling windows. If the heavy artillery fires from here, the shells can be fired directly into the core compartment of the ship.
At this moment, the wind suddenly rose on the sea.
The sea is no better than the land, and the weather changes very quickly. In the blink of an eye, a large dark cloud covered the sky, and the wind suddenly became stronger. At this time, the waves were blown by the strong sea breeze, and the height of the waves soon exceeded two meters. It looked like
It will continue to increase.
Earl Marshfield became excited. It seemed that he had good luck today.
"Let the Nautilus and the Saint intercept the pirate ship. We will evacuate immediately. After they complete the interception mission, they will meet off the coast of Macau." Earl Masfeld immediately ordered.
Theodore knew that they had abandoned three armed merchant ships. One had already sunk. If the remaining two were responsible for blocking this huge pirate ship, they would probably be in bad luck.
But he also understood that even if these three ships were sacrificed, the Prince must be saved. This is a first-class battleship and cannot be lost here. Britain cannot bear this kind of loss.
"Okay, let's retreat immediately." Theodore immediately ordered, raised a semaphore, and ordered the remaining two ships to intercept the pirate ship and then go to Macau to rendezvous.
At this time, the wind became stronger. Huge swells began to appear. The ship began to experience increasing rolling and pitching. Although the Hengshan was a 1,500-ton ship, it also began to fluctuate.
"Quick! Use the remaining artillery pieces to fire quickly and attack the two remaining armed merchant ships. Sink them before the sea conditions reach Level 5." Dong Tianpeng shouted anxiously.
Level 5 sea state has wave heights of 2.5~4.0m, tall wave crests appear, the waves occupy a large area on the waves, and the wind begins to cut off the waves on the wave crests.
Seeing that Lin Yueru and her mother were confused, the first mate Huang Hai explained: "Madam, the wind is blowing, and the waves will rise soon. If the sea conditions exceed Level 5, according to the operating instructions, the gun windows must be closed. Because of the dryness of the clipper ship,
The side is low. Although it reduces the wind resistance and increases the ship's speed, it also causes the window of the gun bunker to be too close to the sea. If the waves are too big, seawater will pour into the gun bunker, and there is a risk of sinking the ship."
Xiao Niangpi thought for a while and said: "Forget it, don't take risks. Go back to the bay on the island to take shelter from the wind and pick up the master. Wait until the storm passes before chasing them. Our boat is fast and they can't escape."
