Chapter 121: A Duel to the Death 2

Chapter 121 – Duel to the Death 2
“Are the cannons all tuned?” Captain Quirk of the Hope asked loudly.

“All tuned, Captain, ready to fire at any time!” The gunnery officer immediately responded to him.

By now the weather was cold, and the difference in temperature between the high sea and the low land caused the monsoon winds to blow from the land to the sea, which put the Aldar fleet departing from the harbor in an upwind position, and the pirate fleet in a downwind position.

Quirk shouted, “Men, we’re upwind now, so take advantage of this!”

Sailed battleships equipped with artillery had many advantages when they were in the upwind position, as the sea breeze tilted the hulls, and the guns on the side facing the enemy ship would have their muzzles facing slightly downward, making it easier to hit the enemy battleships near their draft lines.

Furthermore, a ship on the upwind side is less affected by smoke after a cannonade, and is more conducive to aiming and loading, unlike a ship on the downwind side, which is affected by both the smoke produced by its own guns and the smoke produced by the other side.

However, upwind had its own disadvantages, for those warships with multiple layers of guns, again, because of the hull tilt, the lower gun ports could not be opened when the waves were too big, resulting in a sudden reduction in firepower.

And downwind also has its own advantages, in the downwind of the warship if you can not win the wind can take advantage of the wind to pat the butt and go, the other side can not catch up, but in the upwind of the warship if you can not hold on to want to sneak can not be so easy.

Overall, the probability of sinking a ship in the upper wind is much higher than that of its opponent, the role of the navy’s positioning determines its tactics, and there is a very interesting comparison between the age of sail on Earth.

In history, as a land power of France, its navy mostly play cover landings, escort merchant ships and other second-rate role, never a painful duel, the mission determines that they can not love war, so the French navy most of the time will go to grab the downwind position, hit a few guns and then bugger off.

France’s nemesis at the time, Britain, with the glorious tradition of always possessing the upper hand, pursuing the policy of two strong Britain, its naval strength dominated the world for two centuries, for them, the naval war is to destroy the enemy, so their huge fleet, most of the time will try to sink the enemy ships.

As the two sides drew closer, Quirk took over at the helm, and the Hope needed to angle her hull so that the guns on the side could be aimed at the pirate ship. Steering downwind was a dangerous endeavor, and Quirk chose to take the helm himself at such an important time.

The port gunners held their breath, staring dead ahead at the pirate ship in the distance, waiting for the gunnery officer’s orders.

……

Pirate fleet side, Gaden and others also gradually see the lineup of Alda Navy, rushed in the forefront of the Hope is especially eye-catching.

“Is that the legendary strange ship? It’s true that you can’t see any oars.”

As a qualified pirate, Gaden of course held a great interest in all kinds of contraptions on the water, and he began to get excited at the sight of the Hope. The drug he had just swallowed began to take effect, giving him an overwhelming sense of confidence, and the initial panic of finding himself in a head-on collision with the Alda Navy had vanished without a trace.

Gaden was now filled with thoughts of how to capture that monstrous ship as part of his collection.

“Have the slaves row harder! All hands prepare for a pick-up fight.” The pirate leader ordered loudly, he couldn’t wait to tear his enemies to pieces now.

The sound of the whips in the cabin got louder.

……

Hope waited for the moment she had been waiting for, one of the pirate ships at the head of the ship was trying to get the side of the ship she was hitting to stick over, and some of the pirates on the deck were swishing cold arrows their way.

The gunnery officer saw his chance and yelled, “Fire!”

Before the words fell, the gunners of the four cannons who heard the order lit the fire transmission holes at almost the same moment, and along with the smoke and fire, four solid cannonballs were fired in unison.

The crowd on the pirate ship at the head of the fight only saw a flash of fire from the four blackened tubes on the opposite side of the ship, before the ship was enveloped in a puff of smoke.

“What the hell? Their ship actually caught fire on its own?” The pirates who were rubbing their fists and preparing to jump onto the other side’s warship were dumbfounded.

Then they felt the battleship under their feet suddenly shaking wildly, many people were unsteady under such vibrations and fell on the deck, and loud breaking sounds rang out, as if someone was wheeling a sledgehammer and smashing the wooden boards.

This is the effect of shells hitting the pirate ship, compared to the Hope’s thick hull, the pirates’ oar sailing ship hull is thinner, the shells hit on it as if they pierced a layer of cream. The pirate ship has two decks, the oarsmen are located in the upper and lower decks between the decks of the cabin, the shells directly into the shells took away the lives of several oarsmen, but the whole ship maneuvering more damage is due to the hull of the ship shattered and the resulting flying wood shavings into a fatal weapon embedded in the flesh of the surrounding oarsmen.

“Ah~~” the injured oarsmen wailed, writhing around in agony on the deck.

Those uninjured oarsmen were also stunned by the sudden blow and the tragedy of their companions, many of them fell to the ground due to the violent shock, including the pirate in charge of commanding the slaves, and the whole cabin looked at the side of the ship wall facing the enemy in disbelief, with the four large broken holes in it clearly in front of their eyes.

They were dumbfounded for only a few seconds, and then someone continuously shouted out in horror, “Devil’s weapon!” “The other side used magic!” , the cabin was in chaos, and no one cared about paddling.

Soon the tragic situation on the lower deck was known by the whole ship, the ship’s crowd encountered this situation for the first time, the normal routine should be to stick the ship’s side on top of the other ship’s side, and then jumped over to the two sides of the sailors to cut each other ah.

Some people who have seen a lot of people know that the navy of the southern countries are equipped with crossbows that can shoot remotely, but the other side of the ship’s side out of the four black tubes are obviously not crossbows, I have not heard of crossbows fired also issued fire and smoke, and crossbows can not hit so accurate, the power is not as strong as this.

The captain of the pirate ship was the first to react, he ordered the first mate, “You personally go down to supervise those slaves, keep rowing hard for me, we have to stick it over there fast, otherwise we can only take a beating here.”

The first mate instantly sobered up and answered before heading down to the lower deck.

“You bastards, all of you, panic your asses off. Hurry up and get the ship moving.”

The first mate’s roar quickly resounded through the lower deck.

“Snap!” The sound of whips lashing the human body resounded continuously in the cabin.

“Lazy bastards, all return to your positions! Paddle harder for me!”

The pirate leaders in charge of guarding the slaves also began to yell at them menacingly.

In order not to affect the morale, the first mate himself ended the lives of the slaves who were wailing from their injuries with a single slash.

The oarsmen quickly regained order under the whipping and death threats, and fearfully returned to their original positions, continuing to row the oars.

While the pirate ship was in chaos, the four guns on the port side of the Hope completed a new round of ammunition loading.

The first round of shelling achieved good results, and the morale of the ship’s officers and men was greatly boosted.

The gunnery officer was so pleased with himself that he drew his saber and pointed it toward the pirate ship and ordered loudly, “Fire!”

The smoke from the last round of shelling had not yet cleared, and the second round of shelling began.

“Shit! There’s a second round!” The pirate captain now hated the strange ship on the opposite side.

The hull under his feet once again shook wildly, and he knew without thinking that he had been hit again.

He secretly prayed that the slaves on the lower deck hadn’t died much, however, just as the prayer ended, a news that almost made him faint came from below:

“It’s over, the ship’s hold is taking on water!”

Someone give an introduction to what methods of mass nitrogen production are available with the protagonist’s current technological condition.

(End of chapter)