Chapter 637

After arriving at Chesapeake Bay, Julian Luc's fleet did not rush to attack, but cruised slowly on the sea about 15 kilometers east of Chesapeake Bay mouth.

This is because Luc also saw the sudden appearance of a small black spot in the distant sky.

Today's telescopes still can't distinguish the target from a long distance, and Luc naturally doesn't know what the black spot is. But there always seems to be a voice in his heart telling him that the little black spot floating in the air is not simple.

Luc, who has been serving in France and Guadeloupe, and his subordinates naturally did not hear about the overheated balloon, but for the sake of safety, he sent a class IV warship to observe it.

In the classification of windsurfing battleships in the 18th century, class I and class II main ships had three decks, but the number of such windsurfing battleships was relatively small, especially the class I windsurfing battleships as the flagship of the fleet. Now even the class I windsurfing battleships of the Royal Navy are not many.

Most of the class II windsurfing battleships are used as the flagship of the sub fleet, just like the Guadeloupe fleet of the Royal French navy, whose flagship is the class II windsurfing battleship "glory" on which Julian Luc is now riding. The Royal dove, which was sunk by Norfolk coast guard guns the year before last, is also a class II windsurfing battleship.

Although the class III windsurfing battleship has only two decks, it is the main ship type among the navies of European powers. Although the class III warship has only two decks, this kind of windsail battleship, which is generally equipped with 54 to 64 guns, has strong firepower and fast speed, so it is the main combat ship type of European powers at present.

As for the class IV warship, it was built according to the compromise plan. This warship, with two decks and fifty guns, is called a cruiser and is sometimes used in naval battle lines.

However, like all warships built according to the compromise plan, the status of class IV warships is a bit awkward. In terms of firepower, class IV warships are far inferior to class III warships, so they can not play an important role in the fleet, and class IV warships are not flexible enough to act as cruisers.

In fact, the real cruisers are smaller class 5 and class 6 warships. They have 24 to 40 guns, often all on the same deck. These warships are lighter and faster than large warships, so they are suitable for attacking merchant ships and undertaking reconnaissance, search, guard and cover tasks. All class ships, including big warships and cruisers, belong to the three masted horizontal sail warship in the idiomatic nautical terminology.

For example, the inland river armed transport ships captured by stone bear from the French before are actually equivalent to a weakened version of class 6 ships.

However, in the statistics of warships made by European powers, the main warships are classified as class 4 warships, while class 5 warships and class 6 warships can only be classified as auxiliary vessels.

Julian Luc's Guadeloupe fleet naturally has class 5 and class 6 ships, but he did not bring them out this time.

He's here for revenge this time. It's no use bringing that boat out. Therefore, the class IV ship sent by Luc undertook the task of forward investigation.

This class IV ship named "Brittany" has 50 guns and two decks. Because the launch time is the latest in the whole Guadeloupe fleet, the construction technology of this ship is also the latest, and the speed is the fastest among the main ships above class IV in the whole fleet.

During the first World War, France once had a famous battleship named Brittany class battleship. It is estimated that the name of that battleship was based on this windsurfing battleship.

However, the Brittany sail battleship is far from being compared with its descendants. The full displacement of the Brittany class battleship is more than 27000 tons, which is 20 times that of the Brittany

But in this era, Brittany is excellent, at least its speed of ten knots is faster than that of most of the main ships.

Since Henry Antoine's fleet was sunk here by the coastal artillery of that aboriginal tribe, it is enough to prove that the coastal artillery of this aboriginal tribe is still very powerful. Although Julian Luc firmly believed that his fleet was strong, he would not take risks easily. It was necessary to send Brittany to investigate.

Under Luc's gaze, Brittany moved rapidly towards the mouth of Chesapeake Bay at a speed of about ten knots.

About half an hour later, the Brittany was within the firing range of the coastal artillery of the second battalion of the fourth division coastal artillery regiment.

However, shuigouzi, the head of the coastal artillery regiment who had personally arrived at the Henri point coastal artillery base, did not give an order to attack the ship. Although he was 100% sure that he would sink the aggressive ship in a few minutes, he knew very well that if he did it now, the big guys behind would be scared away.

And the water dog didn't believe that the French would dare to attack Norfolk with such a ship.

The ship must have been a forward scout.

Sure enough, when the Brittany was about four kilometers away from the mouth of the Bay, it began to turn. Soon, the ship drew an arc on the sea and completed the U-turn.

When the Brittany completed its U-turn, the gun at the stern opened fire.

In this era, a mortar gun with large caliber will be installed in the fore and stern of the class IV windsurfing battleship. This kind of mortar gun is very powerful. For example, a class 5 ship and a class 6 ship with relatively small displacement can sink with one shot.

Even if the main ship is hit by this kind of mortar, the damage will be great.

Because of the lack of firepower of the class IV warship, such a large caliber mortar gun will be installed in the bow and stern of the warship to make up for the lack of firepower of the class IV warship.

One end of the mortar gun is fixed and the other end is placed on the slide rail. It can rotate 360 degrees freely, and it can launch solid or shell.

Especially when the shell is fired, it is very lethal to the enemy. It's just like what was played in Pirates of the Caribbean by stone bear in his previous life. He put forks, knives, hammers, pincers, and a mess of metal into the gun. One shot is enough to sweep a large area. However, this method is not easy to use, because it does great damage to the gun.

The big caliber mortar from the stern of the Brittany opened fire, but it was obviously just a test.

Although this kind of large caliber mortar gun is very powerful, its range is really limited, even not as far as that of the deck gun.

Although shuigouzi hasn't experienced a real naval battle, and doesn't really fight against the target on the sea, he is not stupid. Naturally, he won't start to fight back just because the enemy has shot one or two shells.

He won't do his best until all the Frenchmen's ships are within the range of the landing gun!