Dundas had not expected the battle on the other side to end so quickly. He had genuinely believed that even if two against one could not win, they could at least hold the enemy back.
In his experience, if two ships were to determine a victor, even if one side held an overwhelming advantage, it would still take around half an hour.
Half an hour would have been enough for him to clean up the old, weak, sick, and crippled vessels in the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
No matter what, Dundas had never expected the Brienne to be rammed cleanly in two, while the Sidon beside it had clearly misjudged the enemy's strength and simply did not dare move forward to intercept.
In the eyes of those aboard the Sidon, this colossal ship possessed not only astonishing defenses, but terrifying firepower as well. Its commander was either a reckless hothead who charged ahead without a care—or a famed general with absolute confidence in himself?
In short, both the crew and captain of the Sidon had fallen into fear. They were soldiers, and they feared military law, but they also feared death—and feared the unknown even more.
Thus, the Sidon deliberately avoided the colossal ship and switched to harassment tactics.
In truth, the Sidon's crew had overthought things a little. The Karl Augustus truly had astonishing defenses, and the shore batteries' firepower was indeed terrifying. But—
The tragedy of the Brienne had mainly been caused by bad luck, compounded by a gap in understanding.
In reality, after fighting for so long, the Karl Augustus had landed only that single shot. No matter how powerful the shore batteries were, they still had to hit their target.
But the Karl Augustus and the shore batteries were fundamentally incompatible. The gunners could not even