Chapter 320

"Unicorn is included!"

"The unicorn entered the formation, reply, clearance. The commander ordered to maintain the existing procession and ordered the golden deer to go six kilometers ahead with a warning period of two hours!"

On March 24, 1780, seven high flying warships were flying bright Mi Zi flags at five knots on the green coastline of Miskito kingdom.

They are Nelson's Sea fleet.

The fleet in the moving state is showing a loose and non-standard [v] shape. After falling in the middle, HMS Hinchinbrook and HMS prairie lion cruisers keep pace with each other.

They are also the captains and Deputy captains of the whole fleet. Nelson's Hinchinbrook is on the left and Cornwallis's prairie lion is on the right.

On the port side of Hinchinbrook is the golden deer beyond two hull, and then on the left, the first hull is Pierce's Eros, and on the far left is the speed benchmark of the whole fleet, the Cyclops.

On the starboard side of the prairie lion is the unicorn, Captain Colin wood. The first three ships to the right of the unicorn are the black goat, which acts as the inner defense closest to the coastline.

The fleet was full of tension.

The sea taking operation began two weeks ago. Lorraine sent Leff and low-key and reliable Daniel, who had just joined, and transferred two medium-sized sloop sloop sloop cactus and dahlia from Orvis to cooperate with the returning green dew to form an advance supply ship team.

They hired 20 young men on the island of Providencia and gave a one-year chamber of commerce contract without any discrimination, which moved the old village head of the challenging indigenous village to almost cry to death.

Lorraine and Nelson talked to the boys, each of whom was a strong young man between the ages of 16 and 24 with at least two years of fishing experience.

Although Leff and Daniel hid most of the details from them, they were still optimistic and morale was high. When asked about their views on action, each looked like going through fire and water. They were obviously very satisfied with their contract.

This gave Nelson three points of confidence in the whole operation.

So on March 20, a supply fleet disguised as an indigenous fishing boat entered the San Juan estuary in advance. After waiting for them for four days, the sea fleet, which received no bad news, officially set sail and drove to the landing area in a combat formation.

This short route of more than 100 kilometers and a journey of no more than 12 hours will be the key to the success or failure of the whole operation.

Standing in the bow of the golden deer against the sea breeze, Lorraine accurately heard the order of the messenger.

Forward alert is a routine action of formation marching, especially in the areas under the control of the enemy and ourselves, or in the complex sea surface with islands and reefs.

The San Juan estuary has both, so Nelson was extra vigilant when arranging the alert.

The whole fleet takes two hours as a round. The Cyclops, which is most suitable for use as a scout ship, is responsible for the first and last two shifts, while the Eros, unicorn, golden deer and black goat are responsible for the middle four shifts. The slow grassland lion and hinchin brook do not participate in the advance, and the whole process is not disordered.

The golden deer is the fourth shift, which means that the fleet has left lucifields for 6 hours, is close to or even has entered the Spanish controlled area.

"The whole ship is on level II alert, the personnel are on duty, and the sailors on duty call the roll."

Lorraine whispered.

"Reply to the governor ship and receive the order. The golden deer is separated from the formation. Tell the God of love that the golden deer is separated from the formation and ask vice president yatis to close the formation."

"The golden deer, full sail, spread its wings, five kilometers ahead, let's go!"

The order was given and the whole ship agitated.

In the middle of the sound of orders, the half retracted cross sail was spread out and rolled round against the wind.

The sailor on the yard untied the wing sail, opened the attached sail that greatly exceeded the side width, lowered the sail cable, tied it tightly and straightened it, just like inserting wings for the golden deer, the speed of the whole ship suddenly increased, broke the waves like an arrow and rushed to the wide sea in the distance.

Nelson and major Spencer watched the golden deer fly away.

The major was dazzled and sighed softly, "I don't know if it's an illusion. I always think the golden deer is much faster than the previous Eros and unicorn."

"That's not an illusion." Nelson scolded jealously. "Drake is a drug addict crazy about high-speed and adventure life. The golden deer was just an ordinary destroyer, but Drake planted wings for her."

"Wings?" major Spencer pointed to the flaring wing sails on both sides. "Are those unusual sails?"

"They are called wing sails, which can greatly improve the speed of the warship at a specific wind cutting angle, but also reduce the flexibility and stability of the ship."

"This is a crazy design that chases the wind or even the superior wind. Generally, warships above level 5 rarely use it." Nelson smiled helplessly. "In fact, ship types with more than 40 doors pursue stability. Even the wing sail can not greatly improve the navigation speed. At most, it can only make the wing sail ship superior to the same type of ships in terms of acceleration ability as just now."

The major looked blankly: "since there are fewer advantages and more disadvantages..."

"That's why I say that guy is a drug addict. The speed advantage of about 1 quarter and the acceleration advantage of more than three times are enough to make him crazy."

……

The golden deer galloped through the wind.

After the initial acceleration stage, the speed of the golden deer soon stabilized, maintaining a medium speed of 8.5 knots in a not very good wind environment, 3.5 knots relative to the formation speed.

Nelson's order is to go 5 kilometers ahead, so the golden deer should maintain this speed for about 45 minutes, then fall back to the same 5 knots as the formation, form a relatively stationary and protrude at the front of the whole formation like an arrow.

As a result of her character, Lorraine likes the openness and frankness of no ship around.

The scenery of the Southern Caribbean is very different from the northern sea, which Lorraine is most familiar with.

On the right hand side is the oil painted dark green coastline of Central America.

Dark green is the color of rain forest. This ancient rain forest extends from the east coast to Lake Nicaragua. It is full of precious animals and plants that are more expensive than gold, as well as deadly poisonous insects and beasts.

It was it that blocked the passage of British troops from the mosquito coast to Managua.

In order to reach the essence of the Nicaragua region, the only alternative is to bypass the South America's San Juan River.

On the left-hand side of Lorraine, the vast continental shelf can be seen everywhere. Many of them are sudden shoals and scattered coral bushes reflecting the sea surface. Occasionally, there are islands, large and small, in rows and columns. All of them are strange peaks and jagged rocks.

Turning the corner of mono, not far away is the Mayes islands hanging overseas.

This archipelago is composed of two large and small Mayes islands and contiguous reefs, covering hundreds of mu of land and sea area. It is only suitable for detour and not for opposite crossing.

In the chart of the Royal Navy, this archipelago is marked as an uninhabited island. The original Aborigines were plundered by the Spanish more than 100 years ago. Since then, no new population has moved in and has been desolate until now.

It is said that a Spanish treasure fleet sank in the nearby sea area because of the storm, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of wealth lay on the seabed.

But hundreds of acres of sea area can not be explored manually. How deep was the wind blowing the fleet full of treasure, where did it hit the reef, and in which direction did it struggle?

No one knows.

Every drop of sea water in the Caribbean melts the story of sunken ships and treasures. Lorraine suddenly thought that if there was a parrot snail, he might become the richest man in the world only by salvaging sunken ships.

Just thinking, the wind direction changes suddenly.

The high mountains of grand mays Island block the wind belt, and the wind direction winds around the island side with an angle of about 30 degrees.

There is no doubt that the disadvantage of wing sail is obvious. Once the appropriate angle is lost, the cumbersome sail will not become an auxiliary arm, but will affect the stability of the ship.

Lorraine frowned discontentedly and ordered the left rudder 10 degrees to follow the wind around the island.

The wide open sea area of grand mays gradually appeared in front of Lorraine. In that sea area... There are ships!

"Encounter!"

Just as Lorraine found the opposing ship, the lookout broke out shouting.

"The shadow of the ship was found at 11 o'clock ahead. One class IV Galen patrol ship, one class V Galen destroyer, and one class VI high-speed brig, in a diagonal cruise formation, circling from the back of the island!"

"The target flag is confirmed as the Royal Spanish Navy!"

"The other party found us! Brig is charging us. The distance between the two sides is 3 kilometers and the relative speed is 15 knots!"

"Contact in 7 minutes!"

"Enemy attack!!!"