Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 73 Naval Battle
On board the Vengeance, Drake roared as he gave orders: "Order all ships to turn around and follow the Vengeance! Take out these galleys first! Don't board them, bombard them with cannons!"

The Vengeance was one of five warships that Drake seized from East Harbor. The Venetian Navy believed there were only four, but in fact, the fifth warship that escaped to the surface was also captured by the Tanilians.

Although warships with high freeboard and tall superstructures clearly have an advantage in boarding maneuvers, Drake knew that his pirate crew was not capable of hand-to-hand combat with casualties; they could only fight when the wind was favorable.

Once the enemy boards their ship and turns the naval battle into a brutal hand-to-hand combat, the morale of these pirates will immediately collapse.

The Tanirian fleet turned its ships around and headed for the Venetta galley.

Meanwhile, the captains of Venetta's galleys were also launching an attack on the Tanirian fleet, and the distance between the two sides was rapidly closing.

The characteristics of oar-sailed warships resemble those of wolves: iron head, bronze tail, and weak waist.

Because of the oars on the sides, galleys could only attack from their own bow. The hardest timber, the largest caliber cannons, and the gangplank were all positioned at the bow.

The broadside was the most vulnerable part of a galley, armed only with a few small-caliber rotary cannons. Not only was its firepower weakest, but it was also its structurally most vulnerable point. A single ramming attack from a large sailing ship in this area could break the galley in half.

The two fleets sailed head-on, and the pirates eagerly bombarded the galleys with their bow cannons as soon as they came within range.

A shell struck the sturdy forecastle of the Golden Lion at a sharp angle and bounced off.

The other galley, the White Eagle, was not so lucky. The shell struck the deck right at the bow, piercing through four sailors before stopping on the fifth. The screams of agony emanating from the ship's forecastle could be heard from nearby warships.

A sailor with horribly ripped holes in his body didn't die immediately, but screamed in agony. Those around him held him, unsure what to do. The White Eagle's first mate immediately drew his knife and gave the sailor a swift death. The screams ceased, and the White Eagle's forecastle fell silent except for the sound of war drums.

Despite enduring a round of artillery fire, the Venetta galleys did not return fire. With the drums beating, the Venetta galleys calmly approached the enemy.

Unlike other captains who stayed in the safer stern deck, Spear stood beside the bow cannon of the Golden Lion, his hand gripping the iron skewer stuck in the charcoal stove.

The Golden Lion only had one chance to fire, and Spyder only trusted himself.

The two warships drew closer, and the Venetta galleys were now within range of the muskets. Gunfire crackled from the Tanilians' large ships, while the Venetta galleys remained silent.

"Right! See that ship with the black flag?" Spyder was practically lying on the breech of the cannon, his eyes glued to the muzzle, and said to his first mate, "I f***ing hate ships that fly black flags."

The flag on the starboard side of the ship was raised, and the helmsman, upon seeing the flag, immediately turned the helm to starboard.

At this point, the Golden Lion and the Black Flag ship were less than twenty meters apart, and the Veneta sailors could already see the Tanilians' beards clearly.

The breech, the muzzle, the large black-flagged ship—three points in a straight line.

"Now!" Spier pulled out the red-hot iron rod and pressed it against the ignition hole.

The two-ton cannon was pushed to the end of the slide rail by the recoil, and the ship trembled. With a deafening roar that made all the crew members' ears ring, the bow of the ship was shrouded in smoke.

A huge stone projectile left the cannon barrel and flew toward the black-flag ship.

Galleons have very few gun emplacements and can only compensate for their limited quantity with firepower. Therefore, Venetta galleons typically have three to five heavy cannons mounted on the bow.

But the Golden Lion was only equipped with one cannon—yet its caliber was astonishingly large. Speyer insisted that it was better to carry only one larger caliber cannon than three.

The cannon mounted on the bow of the Golden Lion was not an ordinary cannon, but an old-fashioned catapult. This type of cannon was generally used for siege warfare. It was not only extremely cumbersome and difficult to load, but also had poor accuracy, missing targets as large as city walls.

Therefore, Spyder had to get close enough, close enough to "press the muzzle of his cannon against the enemy's forehead," close enough to ensure he wouldn't miss, before he could fire.

It has a whole host of drawbacks, but only one advantage: its power.

If city walls can be breached, what are warships?
This nearly two-hundred-pound stone projectile, like an angel of death, roared and shattered everything in its path, from wood to human bodies. The black-sailed ship was smashed with a large hole at the waterline, and as the projectile departed, another one was smashed on the other side.

Seawater rushed into the cabin, and with the screams of the pirates, the large black-sailed ship began to tilt.

The sailors of the Golden Lion erupted in deafening cheers.

The firing of the cannon by the Golden Lion at the forefront was a signal, and the bow cannons of the other galleys roared in response.

Cannonballs pierced the bow of the Tanilians' ships, reaping lives inside the cabins. Another large sailing ship was breached below the waterline, its bow began to sink, and the sailors on deck jumped overboard to escape.

After a round of shelling, the Venetta galleys and the Tanilia fleet charged into each other's formations and began close-quarters combat.

Although the Venetians had the upper hand in the bow gun exchange earlier, the disadvantage of their low-slung galleys became glaringly obvious in the boarding action.

The superstructure of the large sailing ship was like a city wall to the galleys, allowing the Tanilians to fire down on them.

On the crowded galley, the Venetta sailors had nothing to hide behind and nowhere to take cover, so they could only fight back with muskets and crossbows while enduring enemy bullets.

The deck became land, the sailors became musketeers, and a duel of projectile weapons unfolded on the high seas.

Captains Venetta and his crew knew that their only hope of victory was to board the ship. Continuing this battle would inevitably lead to the collapse of morale on the galleys.

The officers on the galley urged the oarsmen to row frantically, trying to get as close as possible to the enemy's large ship from the front, which was the weakest point of the large ship's firepower.

The Tanilian galleons attempted to maintain as much distance as possible from the galleys, using cannons positioned on their sides to bombard them.

An armed Tanilian merchant ship was caught off guard and snagged by a grappling hook thrown by the White Eagle. The Venetian sailors pulled the rope with all their might, bringing the ships closer together.

The iron hook was deeply embedded in the ship's hull and could not be pulled out. The Tanirian sailors tried to cut the rope, but found that behind the hook was a two-meter-long iron chain.

To prevent the hook from being cut, the Venetians replaced the two meters of rope behind the hook with a riveted iron chain.

A brave sailor climbed the iron chain to cut the ropes behind him, but was shot dead by the musketeers on the White Eagle the moment he poked his head out. Other Tannrian sailors frantically hacked at the ship's side with axes, trying to cut the iron hooks and the ship's railings together.

But it was too late. The gangplank at the bow of the White Eagle was lowered, and the iron hooks at the end of the gangplank caught on the gunwales of the armed merchant ship, securing the two ships together.

A piercing whistle blew, and the Venetta sailors charged onto the armed merchant ship with shouts, thus beginning a bloody hand-to-hand combat.

Meanwhile, on the western battlefield, a galley was being besieged by three Tanilian ships.

Venetta's galleys were inferior not only in terms of boat type but also in terms of numbers.

The cannons on the sides of the large sailing ship roared and howled, firing cannonballs one after another, blasting the sailing ship into a frenzy of splinters and bloodshed.

The captain and first mate of the galley had been killed in action, and the remaining officers and clerks were unable to reorganize the crew in the chaos.

The survivors piled up the corpses to form a breastwork, and only a few brave individuals continued to fire back.

The oarsmen no longer obeyed orders, but instead searched for any tool they could find to untie their chains. Some jumped into the sea to abandon ship, but the crew of the large sailing ship had no intention of letting them go, and mercilessly fired their muskets at them.

A bloody and brutal battle was raging on the sea outside Lighthouse Harbor. Gunfire and shouts mingled in the smoke from burning gunpowder, and the sea was littered with severed limbs, corpses, and pieces of wood.

Spyr had no interest in those armed merchant ships; only warships were worthy of being a match for the Golden Lion. The sea was glowing crimson with flames, and the silhouette of a tall warship stood out starkly against the night sky.

Several armed merchant ships opened fire on the Golden Lion, but Speyer completely ignored them.

He immediately ordered the Golden Lion to change course and, relying on the powerful short-distance maneuverability of the galley, found a path through the chaotic battlefield and rushed towards the tall warship.

The lookout on the Vengeance noticed the galley approaching and Drake immediately ordered a turn to the southeast, lowering all the sails and engaging the enemy on starboard.

The cannons roared, and more than a dozen shells flew toward the Golden Lion.

A scream came from the ship, but the Golden Lion only beat its war drums louder and actually increased its speed.

----

At the same time, on the other side of the battlefield.

No one could have imagined that Naresha would be so crazy as to lead a forced breakthrough of the fireship; neither Taniria nor the Veneta navy could have done so.

A small boat carrying flames came with the wind, creating a wall of fire between the two fleets.

A normal captain, upon seeing this, would avoid the fire ships. He would first sail southeast, and once he had created distance between himself and the fire ships, he would then seek an opportunity to return to the battlefield.

This was also the original plan: to use fire ships to force Veneta's fleet to sail to the dangerous waters to the east, while his own fleet would follow closely to eliminate any that escaped.

Even if twelve unexpected galleys emerge from Lighthouse Harbor, it doesn't matter; Veneta's fleet will still sail towards the reef under the pressure of the fire ships.

Drake could then pick them off one by one, concentrating his fleet to eliminate the galley ships first, and then annihilate the main Venetia fleet that had escaped from the Dead Waters—if they could even manage to escape.

But Nareshaw was no ordinary man; he was also the number one gambler in the Venetian Navy. He chose the shortest route, heading straight for Drake's flagship, the USS Vengeance.

The raging fire was terrifying, but what was even more chilling was the thought of deliberately walking into it. Even from a dozen meters away, everyone on the deck of the Glorious could feel the scorching heat.

"God! Save me!"

"This is hell! We're going to hell!"

On the deck, some people were praying frantically, while others were kneeling on the ground, muttering incantations.

"Get back to work, you bunch of cowards!" The fierce-looking boatswain blew his whistle, slapping and wielding a stick to drive the praying sailors back to their posts. "We never see you chanting prayers! What good is this act of piety now? Just do your jobs! Nick the conman has never lost!"

Captain Wilson of the 100th Company of the Contel Battalion gave the three warrant officers a look. Winters and Budd dragged the trembling army soldiers who were reciting scriptures from the ground. Andrei was even more straightforward and brutal; upon seeing a soldier who had dropped his weapon and was praying, he punched him hard in the face.

Just as the army and navy were rebuilding their morale, the Glorious was getting closer and closer to the fire ship. The sails, dried by the heat, ignited the foremast sail before the ship even touched the fire.

The sailors shouted and rushed to the bow, splashing the burning sails with seawater they had prepared beforehand.

"Quickly pour water on all the sails! Don't stop!" the sail rope leader shouted hoarsely.

"Team 100! Heed my order, assist the Navy in fetching water!" With Wilson's command, the three warrant officers and all the army soldiers threw themselves into the water-fetching operation. Stacks of empty buckets had been prepared on the ship beforehand; all that was needed was to lower ropes down to draw water from the sea.

The Glory plunged into the inferno, its bow slamming directly into a small sampan. With a creaking sound of breaking wood, the burning sampan was crushed into the sea by the Glory, leaving only a few charred planks.

The sailors at the bow of the ship cheered with joy.

But then, everyone stopped laughing.

The fireboats that approached the Glorious from the side of the bow were not dragged into the hull; on the contrary, after colliding with the Glorious, they stuck tightly to the hull and did not move an inch even as the waves pounded on them.

These fire ships had sharp iron nails, about a foot long, embedded in their bows. If they collided with a warship, the nails would embed themselves in the hull, firmly securing the fire ship to the warship.

The Glory collided with three fire ships in succession. The resistance of the Glory suddenly increased due to the pressure from the three fire ships, and its speed was slowed down.

A burnt smell filled the air, and terrifying crackling sounds came from beneath the bow. It was unclear whether the sampan was burning or the hull of the Glorious had been ignited.

First Mate Karaman rushed to the stern, no longer caring about using honorifics: "Cage, trainee officer! Take your men down there!"

Cage raised his hand in salute and, without hesitation, took the rope and tied it around his waist.

The sailors nearby disregarded social hierarchy and poured buckets of water over his head.

After being drenched in water, Cage led a dozen or so sailors down the zipline from the bow, scooping up seawater in buckets and splashing it onto the sampan in an attempt to extinguish the fire. The Glory's bow cannons were also removed, and the sailors leaned out of the cannon ports to pour water onto the burning ship.

Led by the Glorious, the other three forward warships also broke through the sea of ​​fire, charging towards the Taniria fleet while braving the burning ships.

The sea wall, made of fire and wood, was forcibly breached, and the warships at the rear decisively turned and passed through the gap, thus overcoming this "natural barrier at sea".

"General! The fire at the bow can't be extinguished! It can only be barely controlled," First Mate Karaman reported breathlessly.

“If we can’t extinguish it, we can’t extinguish it! Even if it’s the fire of purgatory, it will take some time to burn my ship to ashes.” Naresha, beaming, grabbed Antonio’s arm and said, “General Serbiati, the Glory may be finished, but there is a new ship right in front of us.”

The admiral pointed at Drake's flagship: "The Vengeance is right in front of us. If the Glorious is gone, we'll just take Drake's flagship!"

"The Vengeance has lowered all its sails, General! Drake looks like he's trying to escape!"

“No, Drake won’t run away, and neither will I!” Nareshaw sneered. “You think gamblers will cut their losses and leave? No, they won’t. Gamblers will bet everything they have left to turn the tables! Drake and I have already bet everything. The winner takes all! Raise the death flag! The whole ship is ready to board!”

A huge red triangular flag was hoisted on the mast of the Glorious.

The first half of this battle—including the surprise attack on Haidong Port—was a replay of the Anglo-Spanish naval battle, featuring armed merchant ships and warships battling the Invincible Armada. The surprise attack on Spain Port (a supply port), the use of fire ships, and driving the Invincible Armada into dangerous waters were all tactics that had actually been used in history.

Although the English fire ships failed to set fire to a single duck, they did disrupt the Armada's formation and drove the fleet to the northeast of Calais. However, the Armada did not have a galley force lying in ambush in Calais...

Thank you to all the readers who voted for the book before, thank you to writersblock, thank you to this mountain, thank you to Ami, and thank you to 161120205936216. Thank you everyone.

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(End of this chapter)