Chapter 355

"Starboard ready, loose bullets, release!"

At the command, the guns roared.

Days of gunfire rang out on the lake of Nicaragua, opening up a completely independent and unrelated second battlefield outside the main battlefield on land.

The pirates launched a wild charge against the Navy.

Among them, the brigantin gunship San Carlos, which just changed ownership tonight, played the role of the attacker, but it was only a 15 meter general-purpose slup ship roughly modified at high speed.

Sloop and sloop are generally referred to as sloop. As the name suggests, the whole ship has a single mast and is equipped with longitudinal sails.

This ship type has been born for hundreds of years.

In the ignorant middle ages, when paddle sails dominated the Western Ocean, she was introduced into Europe through the Arab region and was favored by Venetian businessmen together with Latin sails. She was not only once used as the core transportation force of Mediterranean commerce, but also combined with the Kirk sloop loved by Hanseatic Business League, and jointly became the ancestor source of all sailing design under the contemporary European system.

For this reason, humanists often praise slup and Kirk as Adam and Eve in the period of geographical discovery, but in the eyes of ship designers, the weight of Adam and Eve is very different.

Karen and Lorraine had discussed these two types of single masted ships at sea.

In his argument, Kirk's ship type basically lost its development space from the beginning of finalization because of various fine reasons such as wave, force and keel structure. Its rigidity determines its potential, and its potential is doomed to be replaced by the rising multi mast fully loaded cross sailing ship.

In other words, Kirk is already in the twilight. When it becomes a historical term depends only on when the ships at the same price can reach or approach the volume of her warehouse.

Slup is very different from Kirk.

Her designer is obviously a loyal supporter of agnosticism. In order to adapt to the possible changeable environment and make free and efficient use of wind power on the Mediterranean surrounded by land, her basic structure is full of vitality and flexibility at the beginning of the framework.

Nothing cannot be changed.

The aspect ratio can be increased, the freeboard can be increased, the bottom can be flat or sharp, and the mast can be forward or backward. As long as the designer can stabilize the center of gravity of the ship, everything else is easy to discuss, and the ship still conforms to the general characteristics of the ship type of slup.

This feature is enough for ship designers all over the world to praise her, because for hundreds of years, she has been the "best ship choice" for the experimental new design of the manufacturing industry.

Throughout the whole development process of slup ship, it can be divided into three stages.

The first stage was the Mediterranean period. During this period, the slup ship was just introduced into the Mediterranean from Arabia. It was equipped with the Latin sail with inclined truss. Although the operation was cumbersome, it was incomparable in adaptability.

The second stage was the offshore period. During this period, the cumbersome Latin sail was gradually replaced by the mainstream soft longitudinal sail in Europe, and a new sail structure was formed with single width, multiple widths and one or several steering girders. Such a ship can control the ship operator to 2 people at least, with relatively good adaptability and commendable sailing speed.

Only too few sailors led to her lack of flexibility in dealing with emergencies, so slup ships in this period were generally small and light, and were mostly used for Offshore Transshipment, short-range trade and shelf fisheries.

The third stage is the recent period. Specifically, in the past five to ten years, Karen called it Bermuda period.

Different from the design thinking of European shipbuilders, North American shipbuilders have always preferred small and medium-sized ships because of limited conditions.

A high-speed revolution has quietly set off in the three centers of North American shipbuilding industry. The fluid of Boston, the structure of Baltimore and the sailboat of Bermuda have unknowingly bred a sailing monster that stunned European teachers - Bermuda sailboat.

The only characteristic of Bermuda's sailboats is speed. The sailing performance of 18 slupp, 16 scuna and brigantin, and 13 to 14 Bermuda galleons is far superior to those dull and bulky close relatives in Europe, even if they maintain only 70% of the speed.

These deviant designs have even gradually changed the military building ideas of maritime powers.

Only a few years ago, the naturally weak slup could not get into the eyes of the Navy generals. Even in the choice of brigantine and brig, the strong navies generally preferred the brig type with larger caliber and more guns.

Brig's advantages over brigantin lie in their slightly stronger self-protection and independent combat capabilities. Although these advantages are limited to the comparison of the same level, they are obviously better qualified for scouting and communication in the role of frigates.

However, the emergence of Bermuda sailboats has completely changed this situation.

Briganting in Bermuda is 50% faster than the traditional Briggs. The maximum speed of slup in Bermuda is almost twice that of Briggs, but the cost is only one tenth to one fifth.

Unparalleled cost performance.

In the vast sea, as long as they occupy the absolute speed advantage, they can avoid most battles. This is the self-protection idea of Bermuda sailing ships. At the same time, it also means that the relatively clumsy brig lost his dominant position in scouting and communication functions in front of them.

The little slup entered the procurement list of the powerful navy for the first time. In order to effectively distinguish this new single mast ship from the old single mast ship, the old slup ship had that new special definition, "general" slup.

The slup, flying a pirate flag and heading straight for the San Carlos, is a general-purpose slup. The 15m class can be called large among them. It is more stable than medium and small, but the simple ship material and weak wave resistance still make it impossible for her to have claws and teeth.

Maybe... We can consider strengthening the bow and then pressing the weight at the stern. Maybe we can arrange a four pound or six pound bow short gun.

Who would drive such a ship towards a gunboat?

Even if the San Carlos is not good at fighting, she is still a gunboat, and the 16 guns on both sides are by no means a decoration

Is Blackbeard crazy?

Lorraine can't guess.

From the first contact with him, he found that Blackbeard's madness could not be guessed by common sense. The attack on Watergate tower tonight further proved this. It proved that Blackbeard was a real madman, mob and gambler, and his bet was his incomparable fighting ability with his subordinates.

So... Do you want to connect?

Lorraine looked coldly at the sloop ship, which was advancing recklessly at night, and suddenly found that it was meaningless to guess the idea of a madman for no reason. Because the reason for the madman's charge is not important, as long as he knows that his ultimate goal is to meet the ship, the only way to deal with it is ready-made.

He made a noise into the night, as if to speak with Blackbeard hundreds of meters away.

"You burst in under the shrapnel... Blackbeard, no matter what witchcraft you use to boost the morale of your pirates, can witchcraft continue to work when the deck is full of broken meat and limbs? Can your ship move forward like this? Just one shot..."

"Shotgun loading, straight ahead, put it!"

Boom, boom!

As if to answer Lorraine's words, the second round of gunfire rose sharply, and the bullets spread all over the whole lake on the starboard side.

Slup in the charge can't be avoided at all.

The distance between the two sides is very close. It is only more than 300 meters. Even in the dark of night, Lorraine can see the situation on the deck through the wind lamp on the opposite ship.

There were only a limited number of sailors on that deck.

Two are responsible for sailing, one is responsible for steering, and three hold heavy things similar to door panels to protect the sailor in front of the operation.

They're laughing?

Before Lorraine could see clearly, the scattered bullets were thrown all over the sky.

Go straight!

I don't know whether it's one or two shrapnel, or whether it's six or nine pounds of artillery fire. Dense bullets are mixed together, and hundreds of iron beads sweep across the deck at a time.

The pirate of the guard propped up the door plate, but it was quiet for only a moment. The seemingly heavy door plate was torn into debris by flying bullets, and the human shape behind it flew backwards like a sack, so it had long lost its human shape.

All six pirates were gone, but the scarred slup didn't waver or turn. Only more pirates ran out of the closed cabin.

Blackbeard walked in front of all the pirates. His fat body personally pressed the handwheel, and his face showed the same cruel smile as when he was in the villa that night.

"Boys, they think shelling can drive us away!"

"Tell them it's no use! Tell them we'll kill them all!"

"Blackbeard pirates, meet the side!"

At the command, all the pirates roared up to the sky.

"Board the Spanish ship!"

"Avenge your dead brother!"

"Join the ship! Kill them all!"

"Oh, ow, ow, Ow!"

"Dock!!!"