Still, old sailing ships could never outrun the Austrian Navy's steamships.
Although this tactic was terribly inefficient at killing the enemy, it was safe.
Even when a few brave British captains occasionally tried to fight back, they had to face the entire Austrian Imperial Navy.
So at most, they could be heroes for a few minutes before they had to abandon ship and escape—or sink into the depths of the sea with their vessels.
Old Edward Hobart Seymour thought the Austrian Navy had simply been lucky, but in truth, every port along the way had Austrian naval intelligence agents.
Every move made by the British fleet was under the Austrian Navy's watch, so just a few hours after old Edward Hobart Seymour divided his forces, his detached squadron came under attack.
That night, the British were attacked at Valletta Port, the main harbor on Malta Island.
At least fifty patrolmen were killed, but worse still, a fire broke out in the harbor district.
Dozens of warehouses went up in flames at once, and the fire spread across a third of the harbor. More than a thousand people died in the blaze, and the losses in supplies were beyond calculation.
Old Edward Hobart Seymour could be certain the Austrians were behind it. No other organization or individual had any reason to do such a thing.
But before he even had time to get angry, more terrible news arrived.
The Austrians had landed and were advancing toward the center of the island.
That was right. In the end, it had come down to a land war after all.
Taking advantage of the chaos the previous night, the Austrian Navy had ferried the Austrian Army onto Malta Island.
The British garrison on Malta Island was no match for these professional soldiers, and medieval