Chapter 263： Artillery era (middle)

Marin thought very well, but in this era, even the Europeans who began to equip artillery on warships were not very sure about the effects of artillery.

Strictly speaking, the first large-scale use of artillery for naval battles by Europeans was the Dieu naval battle of the Portuguese in India. Prior to this, the Venetians and Genoese had also fought many times in the Mediterranean, but most of them were ancient battle modes.

In the Battle of the Dieu, the Portuguese fleet relied on artillery to destroy enemy ships with heavy artillery at a certain distance. When the enemy ship approaches, use the musket to block the enemy sailor's jetty. Then, he threw grenades and killed enemy ships ...

"Grenade ... Oh, why did I forget this ..." Marin patted his head, regretful.

When two ships approach, throwing grenades from one side to the other will definitely kill enough. Although, grenades of this era still use less powerful black powder. However, the explosion of a grenade will also have a burning effect. The burning effect is very deadly for wooden boats. Moreover, even if a grenade loaded with black powder is not powerful enough to destroy an enemy wooden ship, it can still kill and injure a sailor on the enemy's deck.

As the ships on both sides approached, Marin had too little time to think. Although Captain Kidd is experienced in sailing, when it comes to naval warfare using artillery, he is completely a layman. Because, remembering what the captain had learned, it was just a battle on the side. Nowadays, when the number and quality of combatants are at a disadvantage, fighting against opponents is definitely death. Therefore, Marin simply took over the command and began to use his ability of "talking on paper" to direct this naval battle ...

马 After Marin yelled, the two ships lined up and pointed their muzzles at the four pirate ships coming ...

Marin is actually very strange, why is there such a large-scale pirate group in Morocco. You know, in the era when the great voyage was not flourishing, there were enough 4 pirate ships and 200 pirates, which definitely belonged to large-scale pirate organizations.

In this era, the main market for pirates was actually the Mediterranean. Because the shipping trade on the Mediterranean is more developed. As for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, although shipping is also very developed, there are two maritime hegemons, the Danish and Hanseatic Alliance, and under the purview of the two hegemons, there are fewer pirates. The Mediterranean Sea is too large. Although Venice is strong, it cannot control such a large Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, pirates are still rampant in the Mediterranean.

It was just that before the Indian route was opened, the pirates on the Atlantic had no oil at all ...

What Marin did not know was that these pirates were actually a group of pirates officially supported by Morocco. They exist for the purpose of blocking the Spanish and Portuguese.

Because of the two countries, Spain and Portugal, set up strongholds along the coast of Morocco, engaged in colonization, and eroded the territory of Morocco. In retaliation, the Moroccans specially recruited a group of murderous Moorish pirates. Under the secret support of the Moroccan royal family, they roamed the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco and specifically intercepted Spain to the Canary Islands or Portugal to the West African coast for trade and colonization Merchant ship.

Unfortunately, Marin was caught by four pirate ships this time. The pirates believe that these two ships are definitely trading merchant ships and the profits are bound to be huge. So, these gangs of ferocious pirates obviously regarded the two boats of Marin as two fat sheep ...

Squinting, the two sides were getting closer and closer. At a distance of 1,000 meters, Marin, who was frustrated, ordered to start firing ...

The 12-pound cast iron gun on the barge, though with a range of more than 1,000 meters. However, when shooting at a distance of 1000 meters, the hit rate is really touching ... Plus, half of the gunners on the ship are still apprentices ...

So, one by one, iron balls, in front of or behind the pirate ship, made a lot of splashes ...

The pirates' yelling at the artillery on Marin's two ships was frightened at first, but when they saw that the Marlin fleet's artillery hit rate was so unreliable, they were relieved and moved on.

In fact, Marin ordered the firing in advance, not entirely out of tension. Instead, the gunners also need to find the feeling first. The early rounds of shelling actually meant school firing.

Alas, no matter how new or old gunners are, they are not very proficient in how to fire a gun on a warship. For example, the gunners who had served in the Tholencher and Odershilder turrets were very uncomfortable with the situation where the ship swayed side to side. Because the deck is swayed horizontally, it will seriously affect the shooting accuracy.

Before, when controlling shore defense guns, they were quite sure that they could hit enemy warships even at a distance of 1000 meters. Can fire on the boat, at a distance of 1000 meters, even these old gunners control, there is no accuracy.

"Turn the rudder, want to sail in the southeast direction, and strive to be perpendicular to the enemy's fleet! Be careful to keep the distance, don't get stuck by the enemy, we will test artillery, do not fight the battle!" Marin shouted from the tower.

I heard that the sailors on the ship were greatly relieved that they would not fight the pirates. These martial arts sailors are most afraid of fighting with the pirates who use their swords.

Suddenly, Marin and the gunners began to figure out how to play more accurately. Of course, to prevent the artillery from exploding, Marin shouted at the gunner:

"After firing the gun, pay attention to cooling the gun tube with a wet sponge to extinguish the fire star!" If Mars remains in the gun tube, the gunner is likely to accidentally kill or injure himself when the next bomb is loaded. The wet sponge can not only extinguish the residual Mars in the barrel, but also cool down the barrel to prevent the barrel from overheating and causing a bomb. This is something that Marin specifically mentioned when watching BTV's translation of the old American military program.

后 After the first shot was fired, the naval gun would slide backwards due to recoil. The base of a naval gun is not the same as a land gun. The marine artillery is two wheels with a stand at the back. Ship guns are usually four wheels, and the shape of the wheels is very special-not round, but hexagonal or octagonal. Such wheels have high friction and are difficult to roll. But once it rolls up, the unloading effect is also great. Moreover, behind the four-wheeled artillery vehicle, the rope was tied before firing. When the artillery retreated due to recoil, not only had to overcome the resistance of the four round wheels, but also the resistance of the rope. Generally speaking, gunboats will break the rope. However, in the process of breaking the rope, the recoil of the artillery was also relieved. In this way, the receding distance of the four-wheeled artillery vehicle becomes limited, and the resetting of the artillery is easier.

后 After the first shot was fired, the gunners began to work together. First, the first person held a wooden stick with a wet sponge, stirred it in the gun tube, extinguished the fire star and cooled the gun tube. Then, the second person wiped his tail with a wet sponge. Then, after the third person cleaned the barrel with a dry sponge, he started to charge. After that, the iron ball was loaded into the gun barrel, compacted, and the letter was placed on the fire hole ... Finally, naturally, everyone in the artillery team worked together to push the artillery vehicle back to its original position.

The guns on the puppet gun car have almost no elevation angle, they are all placed flat ahead of time, trying to bombard enemy ships on the horizontal line. However, because of the frequent horizontal sway of the ship, it was very difficult to shoot and aim ~ www.novelhall.com ~ After entering the range of 500 meters, the first few rounds of shelling were still not accurate, and the iron **** fell into the sea ...

In fact, the launch of naval guns requires skills very much. Artillery should not be fired when the ship is shaking from side to side. Because if the artillery is shaking, if it can hit the enemy ship, it will really step on the dog SHI.

Experienced gunners usually pay great attention to the lateral sway law of the ship under their feet. For example, when the ship just returned to the horizontal position, it is the best time to fire. From this perspective, the probability of an artillery hit is the largest.

However, even if you know this principle, it is difficult to control the timing of firing. Because, even if you master the timing of the ship's shaking, it is not enough. In addition, the gunner also needs to master the burning time of the letter. Best of all, the moment the letter was burned, the ship just wobbled to a level position ...

事实上 But in fact, even if these two points are achieved, they may not be accurate. Because there may not be only one artillery on a ship. If other artillery fired first, the recoil force caused by it would change the ship's shaking time. The timing of the previous gunner may be wrong.

Therefore, in naval battles, in the era of smoothbore guns, the probability of a ship gun hitting an enemy ship was very low. Even at a close range of 500 meters, it is difficult for the average gunner to achieve a 10% hit rate. If you want a higher hit rate, then learn Nelson, boldly lean against the enemy ship, lean together ...

Alas, it is dangerous to do so. Even if they are trained sailors. For example, Nelson himself accidentally farted ...

Marlin is certainly not willing to take this risk, because his subordinates have very poor experience, and many sailors have insufficient courage. So he chose to fight with the enemy and bet on the hit rate of the artillery ...