"Artillery Are everything adjusted?" Quirk, the captain of the Hope, asked loudly.
"It's all adjusted, Captain, you can launch at any time!" Artillery Officer responded to him immediately.
The weather was already cold at this time, and the temperature difference between high sea and low land caused the monsoon wind to blow from the land to the sea. This put Arda Fleet starting from the port in the windward position, while the pirate fleet was in the downwind position.
Quirk shouted loudly, "Guys, now we are in the upper hand, we must seize this opportunity!"
The Sailing Warship equipped with Artillery has many advantages when it is in the upwind position, because the sea wind will tilt the hull, and the Artillery on the side facing the enemy ship will be Muzzle slightly downward, making it easier to hit the enemy warship near the waterline.
Furthermore, a ship located upwind will be less affected by smoke after a shelling, making it easier to aim and load. Unlike a ship located downwind, it will be affected by both the smoke generated by its own shelling and the smoke generated by the opponent.
However, the upwind port also has its own disadvantages. For those warships with multi-layer Artillery, also because the hull is tilted, the lower layer of Muzzle cannot be opened when the waves are too large, resulting in a sudden decrease in firepower.
The downwind also has its own advantages. If the warship in the downwind cannot win, it can take advantage of the wind and leave, and the opponent will not be able to catch up. However, if the warship in the upwind cannot hold on and wants to escape, it will not be so easy.
Generally speaking, the probability of a ship with the upper hand sinking the opponent is much greater than that of its opponent. The role of the navy determines the tactics it adopts. There is an interesting comparison in the Age of Discovery on Earth.
Historically, as a land power, France's navy mostly played second-rate roles such as covering army landings and escorting merchant ships. It rarely engaged in happy decisive battles. The mission determined that they could not be reluctant to fight, so most of the time the French navy would seize the upper hand, fire a few shots and then run away.
Britain, France's archrival at the time, had a glorious tradition of always having the upper hand. Britain, which pursued a dual-power policy, had dominated the world in naval strength for two centuries. For them, naval warfare was about destroying the enemy, so their huge fleet would work hard to sink enemy ships in most cases.
As the distance between the two sides gradually approached, Quirk took over the helmsman's job. The Hope needed to adjust the angle of the ship's hull so that the Artillery on the side could be aimed at the pirate ship. Turning downwind is a very dangerous job. At such an important moment, Quirk chose to steer the ship himself.
The port gunners held their breath and stared at the pirate ship in the distance, waiting for Artillery Officer's order.
On the pirate fleet side, Gaden and others gradually saw Arda Navy's lineup. The Hope at the front was particularly eye-catching.
"Is that the legendary strange ship? It sure doesn't look like it has oars."
As a qualified pirate, Gaden is of course very interested in all kinds of things on the water. When he saw the Hope, he became excited. The medicine he had just swallowed began to take effect, giving him extremely strong self-confidence. The initial panic when he found himself running into Arda Navy had disappeared.
Now Gaden is thinking about how to capture that strange ship as one of his collections.
"Let the slaves row harder! Everyone is ready to fight on the side." The pirate leader ordered loudly, and he could not wait to tear the enemy into pieces.
The sound of whips in the cabin became louder.
The Hope arrived at the moment she had been waiting for for a long time. The leading pirate ship was trying to get the side of the ship to hit her, and some pirates on the deck were still firing cold arrows at her.
Artillery Officer saw the opportunity and shouted, "Fire!"
Before he finished speaking, the gunners of the four Artillerys who heard the order lit the fire holes at almost the same moment. Along with the smoke and fire, four solid shells were fired simultaneously.
Everyone on the first pirate ship only saw a flash of fire from the four dark pipes on the opposite side of the ship, and then the ship was enveloped in a burst of smoke.
"What happened? Their ship actually caught fire on its own?" The pirates, who were gearing up to jump onto the opponent's warship, were confused.
Then they felt the warship under their feet suddenly shaking violently. Under this shaking, many people became unsteady and fell on the deck. A huge smashing sound also sounded, as if someone was smashing the wooden planks with a sledgehammer.
This is the effect of a cannonball hitting a pirate ship. Compared with the thick hull of the Hope, the hull of the pirates' galley is thinner, and the cannonball is like penetrating a layer of butter.
This pirate ship had two decks. The oarsmen were located in the inter-deck compartment between the upper and lower decks. The broken shells directly took away the lives of several oarsmen. But what caused greater damage to the maneuverability of the entire ship was that the flying Wood Splinters caused by the broken hull turned into deadly weapons and embedded itself in the flesh of the surrounding oarsmen.
"Ah~~" the injured oarsmen wailed, writhing in pain on the deck.
The uninjured oarsmen were also stunned by the sudden blow and the tragic situation of their companions. Many people fell to the ground due to the violent shaking, including the pirates who were in charge of commanding the slaves. The people in the whole cabin stared blankly at the side of the ship facing the enemy. The four large broken holes were clearly visible.
They were just in a daze for a few seconds, and then someone kept shouting in horror, "The devil's weapon!" "The other party used magic!" The cabin was in chaos, and no one bothered to paddle.
Soon the tragic situation on the lower deck was known to everyone on the ship. It was the first time that everyone on the ship encountered this situation. The normal routine should be to stick the side of the ship to the side of the other side's ship, and then jump over and chop the sailors of both sides at each other.
Some well-informed people know that Southern Nations's navy is equipped with ballistae that can shoot from a long distance, but the four dark tubes protruding from the side of the opponent's ship are obviously not ballistae. I have never heard of a ballistae emitting fire and smoke when fired, and ballistae cannot fire so accurately, nor is it so powerful.
The captain of the pirate ship was the first to react. He ordered the first mate, "Go down and supervise the slaves yourself, and continue to row hard for me. We must get over there quickly, otherwise we will have to be beaten here."
The first mate woke up instantly, responded and went to the lower deck.
"You bastards are in a panic. Get the boat moving quickly."
The first mate's roar soon echoed across the lower deck.
"Crack!" The sound of whips hitting human bodies kept ringing in the cabin.
"Sluggards, get back to your seats! Paddle hard for me!"
The pirate leaders responsible for guarding the slaves also began to yell at them fiercely.
In order not to affect morale, the first mate personally ended the lives of the slaves who were wailing because of their injuries, one by one.
The oarsmen quickly restored order under the whips and threats of death, returned to their original positions tremblingly, and continued to row the oars.
While the pirate ship was in chaos, the four-door Artillery on the port side of the Hope completed a new round of ammunition loading.
The first round of bombardment achieved good results, and the morale of the officers and soldiers on the ship was greatly boosted.
Artillery Officer was so proud that he drew his sword and pointed at the pirate ship, shouting an order, "Fire!"
The smoke from the previous round of shelling had not yet cleared, and the second round of shelling began.
"Damn! There's still a second round!" The pirate captain now hated the strange ship opposite him.
The hull beneath my feet shook violently again, and I knew without even thinking that I had been hit again.
He secretly prayed that not many slaves on the lower deck had died. However, at the end of his prayer, a piece of news that almost made him faint came from below:
"It's over, the cabin is flooded!"
Can anyone tell me what methods are available for large-scale salt production based on the protagonist's current technical conditions?