Fox of France

The three warships in the fierce battle all noticed the actions of the British, but because the British were still flying the American flag when they retreated, the French on the "Free Trade" still regarded them as Americans.

"When did the Americans sell their teammates so well?" Zola had some contacts with the Americans before. In his impression, the Americans were a bit vulgar, but they were relatively simple and honest, and all of them had thick eyebrows and big eyes. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like someone who is good at doing this.

But the British didn't care what they thought, just accelerated and ran away. As soon as they left, the entire battle situation changed fundamentally. The French fleet in the harbor began to leave the port, and the French immediately had one more frigate and three small gunboats. Even if only counting the number of ships, the French began to gain the upper hand.

The "USA", which was approaching the "Free Trade", naturally also noticed this change. Colonel Matthews, who was in charge of the command, immediately realized that they had lost the battle. Judging from the current situation, even if the French reinforcements were not considered, it would be difficult for the two ships of his own to beat the French. steamboat. Coupled with the reinforcements from the French, not to mention winning, it would be difficult to escape.

But even so, the "USS America" ​​must first approach and open fire on the enemy ship, so as to save the "Capitol" from a situation where it can't fight back.

The distance between the two sides is getting closer and closer, and the "USS America" ​​has approached more than 200 meters from the port side of the "Free Trade".

The nine cannons on the port side of the "Free Trade" had never had a chance to fire before, but now that the enemy ship was approaching, they naturally opened fire on the "USA".

At a distance of more than two hundred meters, the rifled gun still achieved good results. The nine shells successfully hit two of them, and one of them hit the bowsprit of the USS America very accurately.

This shell had an almost devastating effect. The bowsprit is the place where the jib is hung. In addition to providing most of the power to sail against the wind, it is also essential for various manipulations of the sailboat. Now after being shot, the thick bowsprit broke in two with a click.

The broken bowsprit fell directly into the sea. And on this mast, there are still a large number of cables wrapped around, and these cables are tied to the sails and connected to other masts. It suddenly fell into the sea when the ship was sailing at high speed, and the cables still tied to it suddenly stretched straight and pulled the other masts on the ship to the right, and the bow of the ship suddenly tilted over.

"Quick, cut off the cable!" Matthews hurriedly ordered.

The performance of the Americans was quite good. Several sailors swung their axes and rushed up, and quickly cut the rope with a few axes, avoiding a bigger crisis. (For example, the main mast was pulled off, etc.) But after losing the bowsprit, the speed of the "USA" dropped significantly, and control became difficult.

"Send a signal to the 'Congress' and let them retreat." Facing the current situation, Matthews sadly issued a new order:

"Now, let us fight desperately, hold the enemy back, and cover the retreat of the Capitol."

Matthews' order was sent out with a signal flag. But the "Congress" had also been beaten badly by the "Free Trade" at this time. And because it is obviously slower than the French in terms of speed, whether the "Congress" can escape is still a big question.

But in fact, the "Free Trade" also faces a problem, that is, its shells are limited.

The "Free Trade" uses rear-loaded rifled steel guns. The shells used by this artillery are different from ordinary shells, and the technical content is much higher. The big iron balls used by other artillery can be made everywhere, but the shells used by rifled guns have nowhere to be produced in America. It all depends on the shells carried by the ship itself. One of these shells is one less. And the "Free Trade" must also leave enough shells to ensure its own safety on the return journey.

During this voyage, the task the Navy prepared for the "Free Trade" was mainly to verify the ship's long-distance voyage capabilities, and it did not consider that so many battles would occur. And they feel that as long as the speed is fast enough, the "Free Trade" will not be very dangerous, so they even deliberately brought a little less ammunition so that they can load more, which in their opinion is more helpful for long-distance voyage experiments s things.

So at this point, the Americans are certainly complaining, but the French are also anxious about their ammunition. Now the ammunition stock of the "Free Trade" has reached the dangerous line.

On the other hand, in the absence of high-explosive bombs, it is almost impossible to sink a large ship like the USS America or the USS Congress with only solid shells. Even if the requirement is lowered to make the enemy ship lose its combat effectiveness, a lot of shells are needed. And even if the remaining shells of the "Free Trade" were to achieve the second goal, they might not be enough. Therefore, the "Free Trade" is now facing a choice, which is which one of the two American cruisers will be left behind.

Captain Zola quickly made a decision to abandon the "Congress" and attack the "USA" with all his strength, keeping it as much as possible. This is not only because the sailing ability of the "USA" has been damaged to a certain extent, and it seems easier to keep her, but also because capturing a ship named "America" ​​is obviously faster than capturing a ship named "Congress". The ships sound more exciting.

In a sense, it is a bit stupid to use the name of a country or nation to name a warship, a consumable that is easily lost in war or even in a peaceful state. Because once this type of ship is lost for some reason, it will have a huge blow to the morale of the entire country.

For example, during World War II in later generations, San Dezi foolishly named an assault ship used for risky death as "Deutschland" at the beginning, and then when the war broke out, he suddenly discovered that this ship was going out to work. It probably won't be long before the news will be published in the newspaper: "Germany sinks" or "The Royal Navy sinks Germany", you say it is so unlucky. If you don't go out to work, isn't the boat built for nothing? In the end, San Dezi had to change the name of the ship first, and then let her go out to work, thus successfully changing "Germany sank" into "Lützow sank".

And San Dezi's ally, Jiaopenji, also named the battleship "Pressing Dock" after his own nation, but when it was time to use it, he was worried that it would be a bad omen if it was lost. Li is really pressing the pier.

So when the "Congress" tried to distance itself from the battle, the "Free Trade" did not catch up, but turned directly to the "USA". Because he was very confident in his own defense, the "Free Trade" didn't even bother to grab the T position, and directly aligned his ship's side with that of the "USA". Of course, this will give the "USA" more shooting opportunities, but as a target, the projected area of ​​the "USS" in the direction of the ship's side is much larger than that in the direction of the bow, and the two sides are moving in the same direction. The hit rate will be much higher. Considering that the "Free Trade" is currently short of shells, attacking from this direction can obviously use every shell more efficiently.

When the "Free Trade" turned its main attack target to the "USA", the "USA" immediately fell into a predicament. Taking advantage of its maneuverability, the "Free Trade" has always maintained the same level as the "USA". At a distance of about ten meters, at this distance, the artillery on the "Free Trade" can guarantee a very high hit rate, but the cannon on the "USA" can't touch the hanging steel armor of the "Free Trade" at all.

In addition, the cannons on the "Free Trade" have an astonishingly high rate of fire compared to the artillery of this era, allowing them to fire at least three to four shots in the time the opponent fires one shot, so the "Free Trade" cannons Although there are only 9 guns on the side, the number of shells fired per unit time has already exceeded the "USA" in perfect condition, so after several rounds of salvos, the gun bay of the "USA" was in a mess. It is said that blood flowed into rivers.

The "USS America" ​​wanted to come up more than once and hit the "Free Trade", but the "USS" which lost its bowsprit was quite clumsy in steering, and the steam-powered "Free Trade" was originally More flexible than her. Naturally, such a move would have no results.

Soon, only two or three guns on the port side of the "USA" were still firing, and the frequency of their firing was also greatly reduced-apparently, even in the battery of the few remaining guns, some people probably Casualties, so that the rate of launch is reduced.

Usually at this time, the opposite side should hang up the flag of surrender.

"It's time for them to surrender too." Captain Zola sighed looking at the "USS America" ​​not far away, "They have tried their best, and surrendering now is not considered a loss of honor."

At this time, on the mast of the USS America, a long, triangular red flag was hoisted.

"They hoisted the flag of St. George." Zola sighed. "Yes, this ship is the USS America, and she must fight to the end anyway. God help us, we don't have a warship called the USS France."

"St. George's flag?" Victor on the side obviously wasn't very familiar with these things in the navy, so he asked, "I remember that the St. George's flag shouldn't be the flag of England with a red cross on a white background?"

"That's the flag of England," Zola explained, "but here in the Navy, there's another flag of St. George's that represents the courage and desperation of warships. Well, it's the one over there. What does that flag mean? Yes: bloody battle to the end, never surrender."