Fox of France

The route from continental Europe to the Caribbean is a very busy route, and a large number of ships sail on this route every day. Some ships transport various things that are surplus to Europe, such as industrial products and free poor people, to America, while sugar cane , coffee, cotton and other things were transported from the Americas; some ships set out from Africa, loaded with slaves, crossed the ocean, and arrived here; then the slaves were exchanged for money and sugar, coffee, cotton and other American Products, go to Europe; then exchange these for money and weapons, go to Africa, sell them to African chiefs so they can start wars, and capture more black slaves.

So on this route, it is already quite common to encounter some ships, especially when they are already very close to the Caribbean.

It's just that ships at sea generally keep a distance from each other, especially in the Caribbean. Because in the sea, legitimate businessmen and pirates are often just two sides of the same coin. When a legitimate businessman finds a ship that is obviously weaker and deceitful and can be snatched, he will change himself into a pirate without hesitation. And when he found another ship that was obviously stronger than himself, of course he would run as far as possible as soon as possible, so as not to turn him into a pirate.

Therefore, most ships, as long as they see each other's sails, will run farther if they have no malicious intentions.

The "Free Trade" is a large ship of more than 2,000 tons. This volume is already at the level of a battleship, and it can completely walk sideways in the Caribbean. Not to mention those amateur pirates, even those professional pirates, the ships they use are just ordinary armed merchant ships, even the famous "Queen Anne's Revenge" is no exception. (Of course the one on the real plane.)

Therefore, in the past, whenever the "Free Trade" encountered other ships, and the two sides were close enough to see each other with a telescope, the other party would automatically avoid it by taking pictures of the "Free Trade"'s huge size. But this time, the boat spotted by the observation post was completely different. She didn't avoid it, but approached it directly.

"U.S. warship! At 11 o'clock, the U.S. warship has been spotted!" The observation post on the masthead shouted again.

Although France has not declared war on the United States, anything messy can happen in this sea area, so Captain Zola immediately issued an order: "All ships are ready for battle! The steam engine is on fire!"

It takes a long time for the steam engine to start working. Fortunately, the "Free Trade" itself has four sails, plus precise calculations, and the low-resistance ship shape made through repeated experiments in the pool, so that it only uses The speed of sailing is actually not slow. Although it is not as fast as a normal sailing frigate, it is not too slow.

At the beginning of the design, one of the requirements of the "Free Trade" was that even in the event of a steam power failure, it must be able to run faster than the British battleships with sails alone. So what if the British frigate catches up? Simple, just start playing.

"Free Trade" not only has the size of a second-tier battleship, but also has battleship-level protection. For a regular battleship, the oak planks on both sides are about one meter thick, which is enough to withstand close-range bombardment by smaller-caliber artillery.

Such boards are quite expensive, and the "Free Trade" did not use such boards. Instead, the method of hanging galvanized steel sheets on wooden boards is used to strengthen the defense. This not only reduces the cost, but also saves weight. According to the test results, even the battleship's 32-pound heavy guns are not enough to pose a fatal threat to the "Free Trade" as long as they do not hit repeatedly and cause the external steel plates to fall off.

On the contrary, the shells fired by the 110mm rifled gun on the "Free Trade" can penetrate the board of any enemy ship with great confidence, even the "Victory". Therefore, if the British frigate catches up, as long as they are careful not to be hit by them, it will be useless for them to catch up.

In short, those who can beat the "Free Trade Number" will not be able to catch up with the "Free Trade Number"; those who can possibly catch up with the "Free Trade Number" will not be able to beat the "Free Trade Number". Or to put it more clearly, that is, the "Free Trade" is essentially a warship mainly used to cut off free trade routes.

The "Free Trade" began to turn to the distance of the US warships that were about to pull away and approach. But turning also takes time. During this process, the distance between the two sides continued to get closer, and through the telescope, the part below the sail could already be seen clearly.

"This is an American super frigate." Captain Zola said.

"Super frigate? What kind of warship is this? How does it compare with ours?" Victor didn't know much about warships.

"A kind of warship with American characteristics." Captain Zola explained, "It is actually very similar to our ship. The displacement exceeds the standard of a second-tier battleship, and the defense level is the same. The artillery used is also of the battleship level, but The number is reduced by half, and a certain amount of self-sustainability is sacrificed in exchange for frigate-level speed. Of course, they still have more artillery than us. As for fighting us... Hehe... We crushed them like crushing a cat Like ants."

Indeed, the "super frigates" of the U.S. Navy are indeed very strong. If there is no "Free Trade" in the world, these "super frigates" of the U.S. military can indeed be said to be superior. Anyone who can catch up with them will not be able to beat them. Anyone who can beat them cannot catch up with them.

In the original history, in the second US-British war not long after, facing the overwhelmingly superior British fleet, these "super frigates" of the US military performed very well, although they were not enough to shake the British army's maritime superiority , but none of them suffered a loss in the battle, and even took advantage of a lot. In particular, the "Constitution" frigate known as the "Old Iron Armor" was particularly prominent on the frigate that bullied the British army. Although they were not able to prevent the landing of the British army and set fire to the White House.

But when facing the "Free Trade", the American super frigate is really not super super. In terms of speed, when the "Free Trade" is not using steam power, the American frigate is faster; but once the steam power of the "Free Trade" starts to work, then the "Free Trade" can Easily catch any foreign warship.

As for the firepower, considering the advantage of the rate of fire brought by the breech-mounted guns and the power advantage brought by the steel cannons, although the "Free Trade" has fewer cannons, its firepower is actually much stronger.

But Americans who are approaching now know nothing of either. Of course, although the relationship between the Americans and the French is not particularly good recently, although the two sides have not declared war, mutual attacks between warships have occurred several times. However, this is the first time that Americans have encountered a French warship similar in size to themselves in this sea area. (The French basically have only some ordinary frigates in this area.)

The Americans are very worried that the French will transfer the battleship here. If this is the case, this will obviously have a certain impact on the situation in this area. So the Americans decided to catch up and see what happened.

The smokestacks of the Freetrade began to smoke.

On the US frigate USS Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull was holding up a telescope to observe the "suspected French battleship" in front of him. encounter.

"This should not be a battleship." Isaac Hull thought, "The French know very well that we have no battleships, and a battleship does not need to actively keep a distance from us."

"Follow and have a look." Isaac Hull ordered.

After chasing for a while, Isaac Hull noticed smoke rising from the French warship. The weather was fine that day, so Isaac Hull did not misjudge the smoke as an enemy ship on fire. Because he saw the chimney clearly in the telescope.

"It's a steam warship of the French army." Isaac Hull immediately made such a judgment.

There are many legends about the steam warships of the French army. Isaac Hull had heard some too. He knew that the French steam warships had amazing speeds, said to be faster than any frigate. He'd also heard that the boat didn't need to rely on sails, which made her surprisingly nimble. However, he has also heard descriptions of the weaknesses of this type of warship: because the steam engine, coal cabin, and fresh water tank occupy too much space, the number of cannons equipped on this type of ship is very small. He can only rely on grabbing T to fight more often. And he also knew that it would take a long time for the steam engine to start.

Isaac Hull now faces a choice: whether to turn around or keep chasing.

In fact, in this area, French warships and American warships have not fought once or twice. Just a few days ago, the frigate "Constitution" just captured a French brigantine frigate. (Just because there is no radio, the "Free Trade" and Paris don't know that this has been done here. In fact, in the original history, in the Caribbean Sea, the US Navy and the French Navy fought for three full years, but While they were fighting, they continued to trade, and even talked about buying and selling territories, and never declared war.) Continuing to catch up will definitely lead to fighting. If the enemy ship cannot be caught up with and severely damaged before the enemy ship's steam engine is activated, then once the enemy ship's steam power is activated, the battle may become extremely difficult.

If they turn around and leave, as far as the current situation is concerned, the Constitution will still have time to escape. Because obviously, the current French warship is a little slower than the "Constitution" in terms of speed, and they turned on their own initiative, and it seemed that they did not intend to conflict with themselves.

Zola's decision to retreat was partly because his sailors had not yet fully trained on the new artillery, which made him less sure of keeping the Americans in battle; The mission received was only a trial voyage, and did not include the content of fighting the Americans. But his move encouraged the Americans and made Isaac Hull determined to pursue them.