Fox of France

The thick plume of smoke made the Americans and British first discover the "Free Trade Number". After all, as long as the steam engine is turned on, this feature cannot be concealed. This is especially true when warships are still using coal as boiler fuel.

In later generations, when the steam engines on warships gradually switched to burning heavy oil, when the heavy oil was completely burned, the smoke generated was much smaller, and it would easily spread in the air. A little further away, basically you can't see anything.

But coal burning is different, especially bituminous coal. It is naturally thick smoke. As for why anthracite is not used, well, after all, the coal mines in Europe are not particularly high in coalification, and anthracite is quite small. In addition, there are many unreasonable design aspects of boilers in this era. In many cases, it is impossible to fully burn the fuel. The result is that the "Free Trade" will be black when it runs, and the aircraft carrier of the later polar bears. Some compare. Even take a telescope on the International Space Station, maybe you can see it.

The heavy smoke allowed the Americans and the British to successfully realize the first enemy discovery, but in this era, the first enemy discovery does not necessarily bring the advantage of the first enemy attack, at most it allows the Americans and the British to start first Formation.

It took about half an hour before the "Free Trade" really appeared in the sight of the combined US-British fleet. Of course, at this time, the "Free Trade" had also spotted the fleet in front of him under the US flag.

Just as the Americans expected, "Constitution" at this time, because of lack of sailors, was just an empty shell with only sailing capabilities but no combat effectiveness at all. Although there are still dozens of cannons on it, because there is no gunner on the ship, at least for now, those cannons are basically displayed.

In addition to the lack of gunners, there is also a lack of soldiers on this ship. There are only sailors who are barely enough to operate the sails. Therefore, if the enemy army really leaned in and jumped over a few soldiers, the ship would have to surrender immediately.

Therefore, in this battle, the "Constitution" is not a help, but a burden.

So after discovering the intercepting fleet, the "Constitution" immediately began to turn around and tried to exit the battlefield, while the "Free Trade" began to accelerate, rushing toward the enemy fleet to cover the "Constitution" to escape.

There are two "super frigates" and one brig gunship in the authentic US fleet.

These three ships belong to the ships with good speed. Although the small brig gunboat is slightly slower than the "Constitution" in theory, the Americans also took some measures when it came out to perform the interception mission. , In order to increase the speed of this ship, for example, they unloaded most of the cannons on this ship to reduce the weight of the ship. Anyway, the combat effectiveness of this ship is unbelievable, and now I can only hope that they can get it from the blacks. The information that there is no gunner on the current "Constitution" is reliable.

According to the pre-war concept, the British were responsible for holding down the French fleet in the Port of New Orleans. Then the two US supercruisers dragged the French steamship, and the reduced-weight version of the small gunboat had a chance to catch up with the USS Constitution and take it back.

But the Americans soon discovered that there seemed to be some problems with their vision. The first problem is that the steamship is too fast.

There was not much wind on this day, so even the two supercruisers "US" and "Congress" can only run at 8-9 knots. Although the nominal maximum speed of the two boats is as high as 13 knots, the maximum speed of the sailing vessel depends on the right time, place and people. So just look at the highest speed number. Most of the time, she can't run at this speed.

But "Free Trade" is different. Her top speed can reach 14 knots, so in most cases, she can really reach 14 knots.

The "Free Trade" first rushed straight toward the front "American". If the two sides do not change the course, the two sides may stagger.

"US" first began to turn left to "Free Trade", trying to occupy the t position. But when it was about to succeed in occupying the t position, the "Free Trade" suddenly turned to the right. The shape of the "Free Trade" ship, as well as her relatively large fins, should have made the steering performance of this ship relatively poor. In fact, it is true in the sailing state. But at this time, she was in a completely steam-powered state. The abundant power made her less need to take into account the speed loss caused by the steering, so the agility of the steering far exceeded that of the sailing warship.

The result of these two turns is naturally that the two sides cross in a parallel manner. The two sides are only about two hundred meters apart when they cross each other. In naval battles, generally speaking, at such a long distance and staggered past, the shooting window time is also very limited. If you fire a cannon under such circumstances, you will probably not hit anything. But the "Free Trade" was in this staggering, and there was a round of salvo everywhere.

Only one of the nine shells hit. But this shell easily pierced the sturdy plate that the USS is proud of. This armor-piercing anti-personnel bomb immediately set off a rain of blood in the gun bay of the USS. Five or six gunners were hit by the flying fragments of the shell, and they immediately saw God.

And because it was not sure to hit the opponent under such conditions, the USS did not fire back.

The USS Congress, which originally followed the USS US, naturally did not get a chance to fire.

After the "Free Trade" crossed with the "U.S.", it continued to turn at a large angle, and the track she pulled out spread a pie directly on the sea.

Such a steering is almost unthinkable for a sailboat with limited power and greatly restricted by the wind direction. So when Captain Will of the "Congress" following the "U.S." saw the giant turnaround of the "Free Trade", he shouted in surprise: "God, she can turn like this!"

After completing the turn, the "Free Trade" occupied seven points on the rear of the two U.S. warships, and then accelerated to catch up.

After seeing the pie of the "Free Trade" turn around, whether it is Colonel Matthews or Colonel Will, there is no longer any hope of occupying the t position of the "Free Trade" by speed and mobility. . Instead, they are trying hard not to let the "Free Trade Number" easily occupy their t position.

So the Americans began to adjust the formation, changing the formation of the two warships one after the other into two warships to separate the distance, almost parallel lines.

The horizontal team is actually very inconvenient. Whether it is turning or observing, it will be interfered by its own friendly ships. But it also brings a benefit, that is, when the enemy ship tries to pass through the bow of the first our warship and occupy the t position, he will also send himself to the t position of the second our warship. Go up.

But today's "Free Trade Number" has no plans to compete with the Americans. Taking into account that the American artillery fire cannot pose a real threat to the "Free Trade", sailing in parallel with them so that the long-term sustainable output of firepower is the most efficient way of fighting.

So "Free Trade" straightened up from behind. She first approached the "Congress" which was dragged a little behind from the starboard direction, and shot a salvo of the "Congress" at a distance of 100 meters.

Because the two sides were in the same direction at this time, this round of volley fire was quite effective. Seven of the nine shells fired hit the target. And these seven shells all penetrated the side panels of the USS Congress. In front of the new rear-mounted rifled steel cannon, the American super frigate’s originally proud solid shipboard was fragile like an eggshell same.

The "Congress" also fired back at once. Although the hit rate of its cannons is not as good as that of the "Free Trade", it is worse than her cannons, so in terms of the number of shells hitting the opponent, she even has more.

But these shells, whether they were fired by the 24-pounder or the 18-pounder, were bounced back by the steel-clad "Free Trade" without exception. None of the shells successfully penetrated the plate of the "Free Trade" ship.

"Quickly, load the shells! We are getting closer, this time we must give them a good look!" Colonel Will shouted. Since at a distance of about 100 meters, their artillery can't penetrate each other's shipboard, then try to get closer~www.readwn.com~ I don't believe it, their shipboard is still steel? "

But it is not easy to get close to the past, because you will move and others will move. "Congress" began to turn to starboard, so "Free Trade" also began to turn to the right, continuing to actively maintain a distance from "Congress". At the same time, another volley was shot.

Relying on the advantage of the breech gun in the rate of fire, the "Free Trade" fired three more rounds, while the "Congress" reluctantly carried out an equally laborious counterattack. And in this counterattack, their firepower density has dropped significantly. The volleys of the "Free Trade" just now caused huge damage to the gunners of the "Congress", so that many artillery guns were used because they had no gunner Can't continue shooting.

At this time, the "US" that was found to be wrong began to approach from the left to the "Free Trade". If the "Free Trade" did not give up the attack on the "Congress", it would fall into the "US" and "Congress". No."

A little farther away, the British commander Wien, the Caliphate, raised his telescope to watch the battle carefully. After watching a few rounds of shooting between the two sides, he directed the telescope in his hand and ordered: "Full sail, speed up, let's go back."