Escape Operation (2)

The sun had just set when Murphy's small boat left the dock. Murphy was a captain in the Irish Navy, and before becoming a proud Irish Navy officer, he had fished in these waters for over a decade. He knew these waters as well as he knew his wife's, well, temper.

For over a year, he had been on a mission: to monitor this narrow stretch of sea around Belfast. On clear days, from the high watchtower, the entire stretch of sea could be clearly seen; even a small fishing boat couldn't escape its surveillance. But at night, it was a different story; the watchtower couldn't monitor the situation then. Although someone had installed huge listening devices in the nearby waters, attempting to hear the sounds of ships, especially steamships, passing by, this was quickly proven to be largely unreliable—the current here was part of the Atlantic Ocean Current, flowing from south to north. Because the sea was narrow, the current was quite fast, and the underwater listening devices mostly only picked up the noise of the current. Moreover, for concealment, the Britain fleet could easily drift past at night without using its steam engines, simply following the current.

Therefore, there is only one way to conduct surveillance at night: send small boats directly to the sea for close-range surveillance.

Each ship carried several rockets. If an enemy fleet was spotted, the small boats would fire the rockets to warn the watchtowers on shore. Then, of course, they would flee as quickly as possible, hoping to use the cover of night to evade the pursuing Britain warships.

Generally speaking, once a Britain fleet is discovered, it will mostly speed up rather than foolishly seek out a small boat. Combined with the cover of night, the chances of a successful escape are quite high.

However, in recent months, the situation has changed again. With the change of seasons, the southward-moving cold air has met the moist air brought by the warm Atlantic Ocean current, resulting in dense fog almost every day. The sea fog often does not dissipate until close to noon. Therefore, ships on night watch in the strait to monitor the situation often have to stay until almost noon, after the sea fog has completely dissipated, before they can return to port.

This brought even more danger. There was a Britain dock opposite, where a cruiser was stationed. One of the ship's main tasks was to hunt down Ireland vessels that were monitoring the Britain fleet. On calm days, the threat posed by this ship was rather limited, because at night, it was higher than the Ireland boats, so the Ireland boats looked up at it against a brighter sky; while the Britain looked down at the Ireland boats, which disappeared completely into the Ireland sea. Therefore, the Ireland were more likely to spot the Britain and could avoid them from a distance. Not to mention, the Britain steam-powered cruiser was noisy, making it easier for the Ireland dhows to avoid it at night.

However, the situation is different when there is sea fog. Before the sea fog dissipates, the situation is not much different from that at night. But when the sea fog dissipates, it is completely different from when the sun rises in the morning. Everyone knows when the sun will rise, so they can always retreat at the right time.

However, it was hard to say when the sea fog would dissipate. So, if they retreated too early and the fog lingered for a long time, the Britain fleet might slip past them. But if they retreated too late and the fog cleared, and they found the Britain cruiser not far away, then they would be in real trouble.

Two days ago, a ship was captured by the Britain because it was a little late in its evacuation. I wonder what happened to it now?

Murphy and his two men rowed the small boat along the river toward the sea. They dared not build the dock on the shore, for fear the Britain would come and bombard it.

The small boat rowed eastward along the stream for about a kilometer, rounded a small hill, and then entered the sea. Two naval soldiers deftly raised the grey-blue sail, and the small boat sailed into the depths of the ocean.

Upon reaching the designated location, Murphy lowered the anchor, and the two sailors also lowered the sails. In this strait, the currents are very strong, and without anchor, it would be easy to drift away from one's position. Constantly adjusting the sails to fight the current is too tiring, so anchoring is the most common method. Of course, in case of an emergency and there is no time to raise the anchor, the only option is to cut the ropes.

In the past, cutting off the anchor cable and discarding the anchor would have been a costly mistake. But now, the France would reimburse them, so even the most frugal Ireland soldiers felt it was no big deal to cut it off.

With anchor down, the group had little to do. Two soldiers kept watch on the sea, while Murphy skillfully took out his fishing rod, baited it, and started fishing. It was a win-win situation; catching a couple of fish to improve their meals was a good idea.

The small boat bobbed on the sea, and the three of them, having nothing else to do, started chatting about all sorts of things. Time passed slowly, and during this time, they seemed to encounter a school of herrings. Murphy pulled up more than twenty herrings in one go.

As soon as Murphy came up, another warrior sliced off the flying fish's head with a single stroke, tearing out its internal organs in the process. Then, with two more strokes, he shaved off the bones, sprinkled some salt on them, and stuffed them directly into his mouth.

This is the typical Netherlands way of eating; if you're a bit more particular, you marinate it with some spices, then eat it with salad and potatoes—that's the German way; if you just remove the innards, put it head-up in dough and bake it into bread shaped like a stargazing loaf, that's the Britain way; if you smoke it and dry it, that's France food; if you can it, well, that's the infamous Sweden way. But on this ship, they could only use the simplest Netherlands way of eating.

Twenty Atlantic Ocean herrings filled the three men's stomachs to the brim. The rest they planned to take back. At this time, the sea fog gradually rolled in, and they could see nothing beyond a short distance. The three men now had to rely not only on their eyes, but even more so on their ears, to pay attention to any movement at sea.

The surroundings gradually brightened; the night had passed, and it was now approximately seven o'clock in the morning—a crucial time for vigilance. From here to the Campbeltown exit was about seventy kilometers. At the speed of the Britain fleet, if they passed through here now, they could reach the Campbeltown exit around ten o'clock. The fog usually began to dissipate around this time as well. The Britain fleet would then turn towards Taynish, an area with many reefs, but today's tides were also at this time. The tidal heights in this area were the highest along the entire Britain coast, reaching as high as eight meters at peak times. Of course, this only occurred during spring tides, but even outside of spring tides, the sea level rose by more than five meters during high tide, transforming what would normally be a difficult passage due to the numerous reefs into a smooth road. This allowed the Britain fleet to reach the Taynish Waterway at top speed. Once inside the Taynish Waterway, the France would be unable to prevent them from appearing in the North Sea.

However, the fog was still thick, and the three of them couldn't see anything, so they had to strain their ears to listen. Not long after, they faintly heard mechanical sounds coming from the south.

"There's movement!" Murphy whispered. Although he knew it didn't mean much—in fact, his normal voice wouldn't carry very far, and the Britain certainly wouldn't hear him—he knew it was unlikely.

However, based on the faint sounds they could hear, it was difficult to determine whether it was the Britain fleet approaching or the cruiser that had been specifically targeting them. Murphy and another soldier used a winch to pull the anchor up—it was best not to lose it. The other soldier continued to monitor the sea and prepare to raise the sails.

The anchor was pulled up, and the group raised the sail together.

At this point, the sound of machinery became increasingly clear. Although the sea fog was still thick, the sound seemed to be coming from several places, clearly indicating that it was a fleet.

"Captain, look over there." A soldier pointed south.

Murphy squinted, vaguely seeing a red light.

These are the anti-collision lights on the warship. Red light has a longer wavelength, so it can penetrate the fog better and be seen from a greater distance. Then more red anti-collision lights appeared in their field of vision.

"Raise the sails," Murphy whispered.

The grey-blue sails rose, and the small boat began to move westward. The fog was too thick; by the time they saw the red warning lights, the Britain ships were already quite close. They hurriedly veered westward to avoid a direct collision.

Murphy carefully counted the number of red lights passing in front of him. There were many, and there were probably more further away that he hadn't seen, so this was most likely the main Britain fleet. A next phenomenon further solidified his judgment: his small boat suddenly began to roll violently. This wasn't due to the direction of the waves; such rolling could only be caused by one thing: the swells created by the passing large ships. This indicated that the warships passing by were extremely large.

"Prepare to launch the rocket, then we run," Murphy ordered.

The sound of the rocket launch naturally did not escape the notice of the Britain fleet passing through the area. However, just as Murphy had predicted, the Britain had no intention of stopping there and playing hide-and-seek with them in the fog. Their time was precious, so they did not even slow down, but continued to head north.

When Lord George Kirkburn, the fleet commander, saw the rockets and heard the deafening explosion, he knew the fleet had been exposed. By the time he reached the Campbeltown exit, the France fleet would likely already be there, ready to pounce. But there was no turning back. Britain's current situation left no room for retreat; it was either a decisive victory by breaking the blockade, or a domestic revolution.

In his heart, he did not want to take such a risk at this time—the navy had only just completed basic training on the new warships and could not fully utilize their capabilities. But he also knew that Britain no longer had time to wait.

"We can only hope that God will bless the King," Lord Kirkburn thought to himself.

News of the Britain fleet's appearance immediately reached Brueys via telegraph. At the time, the admiral was once again studying the nautical charts, contemplating a possible naval battle. When his adjutant Pierre, told him that the Britain fleet was indeed heading this way, Brueys was initially stunned. After a moment, he realized that God had truly helped him.

"Thanks be to our Father in Heaven. May your kingdom come soon, Amen!" He made the sign of the cross, then composed himself and said, "Pierre, immediately summon all the captains to a short meeting. Also, have all the warships start their fires."

Ten minutes later, all the captains were in position. Brueys's adjutant Pierre, read them the relatively simple intelligence report—due to the heavy fog, he could only determine that a large fleet was passing by, and that some of the ships were very large. But he couldn't see much more information. Therefore, the report naturally didn't include details such as the composition of the Britain fleet. However, this wasn't a big problem. Everyone actually knew the size of the Britain fleet in the Irish Sea.

Brueys assigned the combat missions, which everyone already knew, but he emphasized them again. He then encouraged everyone to fight bravely and achieve great deeds.

The captains then returned to their respective warships. Around 8:30, all the ships had finished pressurizing and firing up, and the entire fleet left the anchorage and began to approach Campbeltown.

Around 9:30, the fleet arrived in the waters near Campbeltown. At this time, the fog had not yet dissipated, but according to calculations, the Britain fleet would appear in front of them in at most another hour.

"There's a safe passage through the Britain minefield. But the width of this passage is definitely limited, certainly not enough for the entire fleet to deploy in formation. So when the enemy ships come out, they will inevitably relinquish their T-shaped advantage. We must seize this opportunity and strike them hard!" Admiral Brueys thought to himself, looking with satisfaction at the fog that was slowly thinning ahead.