Clipper Killer

This is a frigate with two masts and a foremast in the mid-forward section, and two towering funnels towards the stern—clearly a steam-powered vessel. Its name is "Equality".

Because it didn't need paddle wheels, this ship retained a complete gun deck. However, compared to a fully-fledged sailing warship of similar tonnage, it lacked a gun deck due to the space occupied by the engine room and coal bunkers. Moreover, compared to ordinary warships, the lower gun deck was the one that was squeezed out. Generally, for reasons of center of gravity and stability, heavy guns could only be mounted on the lower gun deck. Therefore, in terms of firepower alone, this warship was much weaker than a similarly sailing frigate.

This frigate has only 16 12-pounder guns, 8 on each side. Such firepower is almost on par with that of an armed merchant ship.

However, compared to Britain steam frigates, its firepower was quite formidable. Britain steam frigates only had five guns in total: one 24-pounder gun at the bow and two 12-pounder guns on each side. Coupled with the higher speed brought by the propeller and better high-sea-state navigation ability, this ship could be considered a killer of Britain steam frigates.

While this boat may not be faster than a clipper boat in terms of top speed, it can consistently reach its top speed, whereas a clipper boat's speed is not always guaranteed. Therefore, this boat can usually outrun a clipper boat.

The crew of this black ship were all transferred from the "Fool" on the Seine River. The reason for this was to enable it to quickly become combat-ready and be immediately deployed to the waters near Ireland to change the situation at sea.

A month later, the ship completed various training exercises and was basically combat-ready. Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Malteng, the ship left the Mediterranean Sea, broke through the British Navy's interception at Gibraltar with its high speed, and sailed into the Atlantic Ocean. After a brief rest in the Le Havre, the entire ship left Le Havre on a stormy night and sailed into the vast ocean.

To conserve fuel, HMS Equality sailed mostly by sail, only pressurizing its boilers and using steam power to escape British Navy warships when they were spotted approaching. After several days of sailing, HMS Equality approached the waters Ireland Britain.

The Equality unfurled all its sails and turned to sail against the wind. At the same time, a long, centipede-shaped kite was launched from the stern. A small man was suspended from a seat under the kite and rose to a height of about two hundred meters. He then looked around through binoculars. Soon, he spotted a clipper ship flying the Britain flag on the horizon.

The short man then pulled a small flag from his waist and waved it downwards.

The people below then began to retrieve the rope using a winch, while the boiler was started to be ignited and pressurized. Two tall chimneys began to billow thick black smoke.

Soon, the kite was retrieved. The short man stepped back onto the deck. Flying in a kite was a dangerous activity, which is why he earned twice the salary of a regular lookout.

The short lookout reported what he had seen to Captain Malteng, who was standing to the side, and then the Equality began to turn and gradually accelerate.

As the boiler pressure gradually increased, the speed of the "Equality" began to rise steadily.

"Fold the sails," Major Malteng ordered.

The ship was now moving very fast, and the sails were no longer of any help; in fact, they were becoming a drag. The "Equality" continued to accelerate, and its speed soon exceeded ten knots. Shortly afterward, the ship that the little guy had seen from the kite came into Major Malteng's view.

By this time, the Britain on the clipper ship HMS Resolute had already noticed the Equality. This was quite natural; with the thick black smoke billowing from the Equality rising so high, how could they not see it? The Britain on the Resolute only needed a glance to know that it was a steamship.

However, they assumed it was a Britain steamship, as they had no idea that other countries besides Britain possessed steamships, let alone that they would encounter one that wasn't Britain in this area. Therefore, although they noticed the ship approaching at high speed, they made no preparations for defense. They assumed that the lookout on the ship had simply missed their flag, and that the lookout would realize their mistake once they got closer.

However, as the black steamship drew closer, they discovered that it was completely different from the Britain steamships they were familiar with—it had no paddle wheels on either side. Then they noticed something that made their jaws drop—a tricolor flag was being raised from the ship's mast.

"This... this is a France ship? How is this possible?" Captain William was almost dumbfounded. "Quick, spread all the sails!"

William shouted as he lunged forward, grabbed the helm, and changed course.

But it was too late. The two ships were already very close. Although the wind at sea was ideal, the "Resolute" needed time to accelerate. The steamship, on the other hand, had already accelerated and was close enough.

The "Equality" quickly moved closer, closing to within a hundred meters of the target, and sailed alongside the "Resolute," simultaneously beginning to fire chain shot at the "Resolute."

Chain shot was a common weapon in naval warfare during this era. Its main purpose was to damage the enemy's sails, thus disabling their maneuverability.

Because of the ship's rocking, even at a distance of over a hundred meters, the accuracy of cannonballs fired without stabilization equipment was often problematic. Fortunately, sails were relatively large targets and easy to hit. Each chain shot that hit a sail tore off a large piece of the canvas. Soon, the sails of the "Resolute" were riddled with holes.

The power of sails, especially the sails of clipper boats, mainly relies on Bernoulli's principle, which is generated by the pressure difference of the airflow on both sides of the sail. When the sail is full of holes, these holes disrupt the pressure difference on both sides, causing the power that the sail can obtain to decrease significantly.

After several rounds of shelling, the "Resolute" began to slow down, and Captain William knew that his ship could no longer escape.

"Fold down the sails, we surrender," Captain William ordered.

The clipper ships had no cannons, and their Greek Fire couldn't reach the enemy, who was far superior in both speed and firepower. What other option did they have but to surrender?

The "Resolute" hoisted its flag of surrender, furled its tattered sails, and dropped its anchor. The entire ship then floated on the sea like a dead fish.

"Send a small boat over there, and order all their men to board the lifeboats," Major Malteng ordered.

Several France sailors then boarded the "Resolute" in small boats and relayed orders to its captain.

"There is no space on our ship to hold prisoners, nor are there any supplies for you. So you can only get into your own lifeboats and take as much water and food as possible. Then we will sink the ship. Well, you have twenty minutes left. Please hurry up and get away as quickly as possible, and then pray to God," a leading French Army said to William.

Lifeboats could not carry much water or food, and they had no ability to return to port on their own. The Britain could only drift at sea, hoping to encounter another ship that could rescue them. But whether they would find one was truly a matter of God's blessing.

However, the Britain on the HMS Resolute dared not disobey the France orders. At this point, the France had become far more gentlemanly than they had been towards other France ships.

Within the allotted time, all the Britain boarded the lifeboats and rowed them away from the HMS Resolute. Then a group of France soldiers entered the Resolute's cabins, removed some items that were still useful to the France, planted a time bomb in the lower deck, and then rowed away from the Resolute.

Ten minutes later, with an explosion, a large hole was blasted in the bottom of the "Resolute," and the ship slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

This was just the first prey of the Equality. In the following week, the Equality sent fourteen Britain ships to the bottom of the sea in one go. On its craziest day, it sank four Britain clipper ships in one go.

A week later, having exhausted its supplies, the Equality ended its massacre of the Britain clipper fleet in the waters near Ireland and returned to Le Havre. Two days after it left, a Britain clipper discovered a lifeboat full of Britain sailors, and the Britain learned that the reason why several ships had failed to return to port as planned during this period was because they had encountered this black killer.

The Britain nicknamed the black "Equality" "Orca" and immediately devised a plan to encircle and destroy it, codenamed "Whaler." They planned to concentrate multiple steam-powered frigates to annihilate the France warship.

Meanwhile, HMS Equality spent a week in Le Havre overhauling its steam engines and other systems, replenishing its supplies and weapons, before departing again for the waters near Ireland. Before setting sail, Commander Malteng, the captain, received a precious Legion of Legion of Honor. Ahead of him, more than a dozen urgently mobilized Britain steam frigates were waiting in ambush.