Boom! Boom!
Explosions, flames, billowing smoke, shattered ships, masts jutting above the sea, sailors struggling to survive by clinging to planks or barrels, countless corpses floating on the water, the sea stained red with blood, schools of sharks feasting, and sail-powered ships still clashing in pairs and groups, roaring with flames as they desperately fired cannonballs and bullets at their enemies—all of it formed the main theme of the Tyrrhenian Sea between Sardinia and Sicily.
The great battle had raged through an afternoon and a night. Now it was dawn on the second day. A thick fog blanketed the sea; you couldn't see a ship fifty yards away. Even so, the chaotic naval battle continued, and the fighting went on.
Both sides knew that in an hour or two at most, once the sun rose and grew bright and hot, the thick fog would surely disperse on its own. Then the war that had gone unfinished yesterday and last night would resume until one side emerged victorious.
So far, those involved in the great naval battle included the main force of the Spanish Armada, led by its commander-in-chief, Admiral Pedro de Baludis of the Spanish Navy; a large fleet of armed merchant ships and naval vessels led by Paolo Centurio of Italy; most of the Ottoman Navy, commanded by its commander-in-chief, Hadem Afmet Pasha; and a fleet of pirates led by the Mediterranean's Pirate King, Barbarossa Fasıl Hayreddin!
Nearly all the powerful naval forces in the Mediterranean, all those with a chance of dominating the sea, had joined the battle. That was why it had lasted all afternoon and all night—and why it still hadn't ended or produced a victor.
However...
As the fighting dragged on, fewer than half of the more than a thousand ships in the two fleets