Reborn As a Pirate

Starboard ready, shotgun, release!

With an order, the cannons roared.

The continuous cannon fire rang out on the lake in Nicaragua, creating 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 attacked was the Brigantine-type gunboat San Carlos, which had just changed hands tonight, while the attacker was only a 15-meter-class general-purpose Sloop ship roughly modified at high speed.

Sloop sailing ship and generally referred to as a sloop, as the name suggests, the whole ship has a single mast and is equipped with a schooner.

This type of boat has been around for hundreds of years.

In the ignorant Middle Ages when galleys ruled the western seas, she was introduced to Europe via the Arabian region, and was favored by Venetian merchants along with Latin sails. The combination and evolution of the Kirk-type sloop, together become the ancestor source of all sailboat designs under the contemporary European system.

Because of this, humanists often compare Sloop and Kirk together, and praise them as Adam and Eve in the period of great geographical discovery. But in the eyes of ship designers, the weight of Adam and Eve is very different.

Keren and Lorraine discussed these two living fossils of the sloop.

In his argument, due to various reasons such as wave, force, keel structure, etc., Kirk's ship basically lost its development space from the beginning of its finalization. Its rigidity determines its potential, and its potential is doomed. It will be replaced by a multi-masted full-rigged sailing ship.

In other words, Kirk has long been at dusk, and when it becomes a historical term, it only depends on when ships with the same price can reach or approach her cargo warehouse volume.

Sloop is a stark contrast to Kirk.

Her designer is obviously a loyal supporter of agnosticism. In order to adapt to the possible changeable environment and use the wind force freely and efficiently on the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by land, her basic structure was full of vitality and elasticity at the beginning of the frame. .

Nothing is immutable.

The aspect ratio can be increased, the freeboard can be increased, the bottom of the ship can be flat or pointed, 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 negotiable, and the resulting ship still conforms to the The general characteristics of the ship type Sloop.

This characteristic is enough to make ship designers all over the world sing her praises, because for hundreds of years, she has been the ship of choice for experimenting with new designs in the manufacturing industry.

Throughout the entire development process of Sloop Ship, it can be roughly divided into three stages.

The first stage is the Mediterranean period. During this period, the Sloop ship was just introduced from Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea. It was equipped with a Latin sail with a gaff. Although the operation was cumbersome, it was superior in its adaptability.

The second stage is the offshore period. During this period, Latin sails that were cumbersome to operate were gradually replaced by European mainstream soft vertical sails, and a new sail structure was formed with single or multiple sails and one or several steering beams. Such a boat can control the operator to 2 people at least, and has relatively good adaptability and a commendable sailing speed.

It’s just that too few sailors made her inflexible in responding to emergencies, so the Sloop boats of this period were generally small and light, and were mostly used for offshore transshipment, short-range trade and shelf fishing.

The third stage is the recent period, specifically the past five to ten years, which Karen called the Bermuda period.

Different from the big and strong design thinking of European shipbuilders,

Due to limited conditions, North American shipbuilders have always preferred small and medium-sized ships.

A high-speed revolution was quietly set off in the three major centers of North American shipbuilding industry. Boston’s fluids, Baltimore’s structures and Bermuda’s sails worked together to give birth to a nautical monster that stunned European teachers—— Bermuda sailboat.

The only characteristic of Bermuda sailing boats is that they are fast. The 18 knots of Sloop, the 16 knots of Schooner and Brigantine, and the 13 to 14 knots of Bermuda Galen, even if they only maintain 70% of the speed, their sailing performance is far Superior to those dull and heavy relatives of the same type in Europe.

These deviant designs have even gradually changed the thinking of the maritime powers on building their armies.

Only a few years ago, Sloop, who was born weak, could not catch the eyes of the admirals at all. Even in the choice of Brigantine and Brig, all the powerful navies generally preferred the guns with larger caliber and more guns. Brig type.

The advantage of Brig over Brigantine lies in their slightly stronger self-protection and independent combat capabilities. Although these advantages are limited to comparisons of the same level, in the role of frigates, they are obviously better able to perform scouting and communication work.

But the appearance of the Bermuda sailing ship completely changed this situation.

The Bermuda Brigantine is 50% faster than the traditional Brig, and the Bermuda Sloop's limit speed is almost twice that of the Brig, but the cost is only one-tenth to one-fifth of that.

Unbeatable value for money.

On the vast sea, as long as they have an absolute speed advantage, it is enough to avoid most of the battles. This is the way of self-protection of the Bermuda sailing ship, and it also means that the relatively clumsy Brig loses its scouting and communication functions in front of them. superior position.

For the first time, the little Sloop entered the procurement list of a powerful navy. In order to effectively distinguish this new type of sloop from the old type of sloop, the old type of Sloop has a new and special definition. , Universal Sloop.

The Sloop ship flying the pirate flag and heading straight for the San Carlos is a general-purpose Sloop. The 15-meter class can barely be called a large one among them, and it is more stable than the medium and small ones. , but the crude ship materials and weak anti-wave ability still doomed her not to have minions.

Probably... You can consider strengthening the bow and then pressing the stern, so that you can barely arrange a four-pound or six-pound bow cannon.

Who would charge a gunboat with such a boat?

Even though the San Carlos is a Brigantine ship that is not good at fighting, she is still a gunboat, and the sixteen cannons on both sides are definitely not for display...

Is Blackbeard crazy?

Lorraine couldn't figure it out.

From the first contact with him, he discovered that Blackbeard's madness cannot be guessed by common sense. Tonight's attack on the Watergate Tower further proved this point, proving that Blackbeard is a real madman, thug, and gambler, and his bet , is the unparalleled fighting ability of himself and his subordinates.

So... do you want to take over?

Lorraine looked coldly at the Sloop ship that was rushing forward in a reckless manner under the night, and suddenly realized that it was meaningless to speculate on a madman's thoughts 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 get on board, the only and ready-made way to deal with it is.

He spoke into the night, as if he wanted to talk to Blackbeard hundreds of meters away.

You charged under the shotgun... Blackbeard, no matter what witchcraft you use to boost the morale of the pirates under your command, will the witchcraft continue to be effective when the deck is covered with meat and limbs? Can your ship survive? Moving forward like this? Just need a straight shot...

Shotgun loading, straight ahead, release!

Boom boom boom!

As if to respond to Lorraine's words, the second round of gunfire sounded urgently, and the sky was full of projectiles spread across the entire lake on the starboard side.

There was no way for Sloop, who was charging, to avoid it.

The distance between the two sides is already very close, just over 300 meters away, even in the dark night, Lorraine can already see the situation on the deck through the lantern on the opposite ship.

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

Two are in charge of sailing, one is in charge of steering, and three are holding heavy door-like things to protect the sailors who are operating.

Are they laughing?

Before Lorraine could see it clearly, shotguns poured all over the sky.

Straight hit!

I don't know if it was one shot or two, or it was six-pound or nine-pound gunfire. The densely packed projectiles were mixed together, and hundreds of iron balls swept across the deck at once.

The guarding pirates propped up the door panel vigorously, but after only a moment of silence, the seemingly thick door panel was torn into pieces by the splashing bullets, and the figure behind it flew upside down like a sack, and it had long since lost its human form. .

All of the six pirates were gone, but the scarred Sloop did not waver or turn around, only more pirates rushed out of the closed cabin.

Blackbeard walked in front of all the pirates, with his fat body holding the handwheel himself, with the same cruel smile on his face that night at the villa.

Boys, they thought shelling would drive us away!

Go tell them it's useless! Go tell them we'll kill them all!

Blackbeard Pirates, take over!

With an order, all the pirates roared to the sky.

Aboard the Spaniard's ship!

Avenge your dead brother!

On board! Kill them all!

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

On board!!!