Chapter 93

December 17, 1778.

In late winter, the formerly busy Cantabrian route became as cold as the season.

Christmas is coming. The sailors want to be reunited with their families. The dockers don't want to work hard.

Since December, the cost of loading, unloading and shipping has doubled. The closer Christmas is, the more outrageous the price is.

Therefore, December is the annual off-season for shipping. This month, most of the small chambers of Commerce will stop working, and the large chambers of commerce with abundant manpower will take the initiative to reduce their transportation capacity and arrange rotation holidays for their employees to buy people's hearts.

But this year's off-season is lighter than in previous years, and there is hardly a ship on the prosperous route.

The war is coming to an end.

The news that the British and French Chamber of commerce is about to fight a decisive battle has become so popular with the spread of English people with ulterior motives that rumors are rampant that it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.

Many people chose to wait and see, stop business on the route early, and give the vast sea area to the two protagonists of the event.

But there are also independent pirates who want to take advantage of the chaos.

Two days after setting sail, Lorraine repulsed three groups of raids. One Kirk was accidentally injured. There were no casualties, and there was almost no impact on the speed.

They're slow anyway.

No one pays attention to these annoying little sharks. The showdown is about to start. They just want to know when it will start.

God looked down at the blue sea from the high clouds.

The wind direction is southwest and West. There is a fleet near the edge of the Celtic Sea. It is Lorraine's Trojan horse fleet.

At ten o'clock, twenty-five kilometers away from him, another fleet with a larger scale but the same turtle speed is the main fleet of Lonza.

The two fleets formed the two fulcrums of an unequal triangle, and the third fulcrum of the triangle was a strange ship.

It's a brutally refitted brigantine.

The port and starboard gun doors are wide open, and thick oar like wooden poles are extended from the gun door, bound with two rows of wide and large rafts, like oar sailboats that have long been eliminated by history, and split ships dedicated to special fields in future generations.

All the sail lines were also removed from the ship. The cross sail of the foremast was still there, and half of the wind was blowing forward. The longitudinal sail of the main mast was removed and bound with a very high super mast, which was 39 meters high.

The 39 meter high mast is generally used as the main mast on a standard class IV Galen cruiser. In fact, it won't do any good when used on brigantine.

It is expensive and heavy. Even if it does not hang the sail, it will destroy the center of gravity of the hull and make brigantin unable to sail stably.

But the ship was used in this way, and the base of the super attached mast was only roughly fixed on the main deck with little support. It was tightly wrapped with the original main mast with dense cables.

The ship is called the hyacinth.

Half a month ago, she was the property of the Yodel chamber of Commerce. After the battle, she was abandoned by the baroness. Lorraine spent ￡ 3000 to buy her and bought the fourth brigantine for the Drake chamber of Commerce.

But she was not incorporated into any fleet. From the day she became the wealth of the chamber of Commerce, she stopped in the dock in selport and secretly handed over to Karen's old friends for this thankless modification, which became the back hand of Lorraine to hide from everyone.

The temporary captain of the magic changed hyacinth is Pierce. Every sailor on board is an old employee who has followed Lorraine to take risks and gain profits in Heba and is loyal to Drake chamber of Commerce.

They hid in the dock for more than half a month until Lonza drove out of the sily islands with the main fleet. It was only at night that they stole out of Plymouth Bay and became the eye of God for Lorraine to monitor the whole battlefield.

Pierce, with a goggle in his hand and a safety rope strapped to his body, was shaking on the highest lookout platform.

He was more than 30 kilometers away from both fleets and hid the hyacinth deep below sea level.

However, with the special height of the additional mast, he can easily monitor the whole sea surface and observe the movements of the two fleets at any time according to his own needs.

He devoted most of his energy to the comfortable main fleet in Lonza.

After sailing for two days and nights, the formation of the fleet was scattered and calm, without any vigilance that it might be attacked. In fact, they were not attacked by any hostile forces along the way.

This calm made pierce uneasy. He worried that Lorraine would lift a stone and hit himself in the foot.

If the Desai chamber of Commerce really attaches importance to yacharin, the successor who is low to point out, and if Velen can't bear the pressure of the chamber of Commerce, really accepts yacharin's suggestion, gives up gold ware and sneaks into Lorin, Lorin's plan will be completely destroyed.

He can only abandon the empty Kirk and escape into the Celtic Sea. While avoiding the battle, he also waits for giving up the fame he earned by sacrificing his life and death.

The price... Is too high!

Pressing his worries, pierce dutifully monitored every move of the main fleet.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, he finally saw that the fleet was in chaos, and the shadow of the sails flashed in the distance. A large group of warships filled with sails from the upper tuyere and rushed forward with a rapid attitude!

Pierce locked the reindeer!

He clenched his fist excitedly: "good job, Desai Tidu, that's it! Acharin broke up your family. Why should you listen to him and get away for him! Good job!"

He jumped down the mast and shouted, "smash the balance raft and put down the additional mast! I'll go to the butterfly to inform the news, hyacinth, return!"

All the crew knew the true meaning of the order.

For a moment, the hyacinth roared: "Drake, long live!"

……

Soon after, the butterfly.

"Slup of Latin sail! Six o'clock, quick approach! Lorraine, little Pierce is coming!"

Haina's voice came down from the lookout. Lorraine was shocked and immediately ordered: "abandon the Kirk, turn the fleet, heading for six o'clock!"

This is an order that everyone has been waiting for!

The Kirk sailor immediately drew in the sails and anchor, put down the boat and rowed to his corresponding brigantin as fast as possible.

After receiving the sailors, the seven slender warships raised their sails, turned their bows, and met the galloping sloop at the fastest speed.

The sailors on board soon saw the little slup.

Slup type is the most common small clipper in the offshore. The standard structure is single mast longitudinal sail, which can maintain high efficiency and stability in downwind and crosswind with the advantages of light, small and long.

The sloop specially used for communication was further equipped with top cross sail and bow mast cross sail, and even the main sail was replaced with Latin triangular sail with cumbersome operation but more suitable for wind cutting.

These high-speed sails designed by Karen made her speed in crosswind reach an amazing ten knots.

In addition, Lorraine's fleet was close to each other and the two sides met in less than an hour with a distance of 30 kilometers.

Pierce boarded the butterfly like a clever little monkey. He couldn't even breathe, so he shouted to Lorraine.

"Brother, the French fleet launched a surprise attack from the upper tuyere. Lonza Roy was unprepared and cut apart!"

"Where is it?"

"Ten to eleven, twenty kilometers away!"

"Hard work..." Lorraine waved his hand, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, "give orders, the fleet detour and rush into the battlefield from the due north. The decisive battle has begun. Let's teach the French a lesson."

His orders were converted into flags at the first time, and the whole fleet was roaring.

"Decisive battle!"

"Detour due north and raid the battlefield!"

"The governor has orders to move forward at full speed!"

"Go ahead! England, go ahead!"