1825 My New Daming

Chapter 288 Royal Navy, Not Afraid of Sacrifice! (seeking subscription and monthly ticket)
Admiral Codrington on the battleship Revenge has discovered the chaos in the sea transfer area, but this experienced admiral will not panic.Because he is very familiar with the performance of torpedo boats and torpedoes.

Due to the popularization of small steam turbines in the past two years, first-class industrialized countries like Great Britain have begun to equip high-speed torpedo boats driven by steam turbines. The fastest speed has reached 34 knots and 35 knots. The impact is of course amazing.But the torpedo driven by compressed air runs very slowly, usually only 6-7 knots, and the range is very short, generally within 1000 meters.At this distance, even a torpedo boat that runs to 35 knots can easily be hit by small and medium-caliber artillery installed on a large warship.

So Admiral Codrington ordered calmly: "All ships turn on their searchlights, their artillery fires freely, and try their best to prevent the torpedo boats from approaching the transport fleet! Strengthen the search and alert to the north to prevent the enemy ships from the direction of the Persian Gulf from coming and attacking!" "

As the admiral's order was issued by the lights, the large and small cruisers, destroyers, and small artillery installed on the transport ships in the large Indian fleet, under the direction of the searchlights that suddenly turned on, shot towards those flying at almost the same time. The oncoming torpedo boat opened fire!

The lights were pouring out, the shells were raining, and water jets shot up one after another on the path of the torpedo boat!Occasionally, a 9.2-inch or 10-inch shell fired by a first-class armored cruiser fell, and the water column stirred up was like a wall of water.Fragments of shells roared and danced on the sea, but those small torpedo boats were still moving straight forward at a top speed of 34 knots!
Wang Zuo took the lead in the first boat, standing in the cockpit of the torpedo boat with his chest upright, while personally holding the steering wheel to steer the torpedo boat through the water jets, while squinting his eyes to find the largest ship among the chaotic ships of the Royal Indian Navy. The goal.He only has two precious steam gas torpedoes, which are enough to sink a battleship!It would be a waste to use them to deal with a destroyer of hundreds of tons. Why would you have to dry sink a cruiser of two or three thousand tons?It would be even more beautiful if it could sink a larger first-class armored cruiser.If it doesn't work, a large troop carrier must be sent away
Originally, the Royal Indian Navy ships on the sea did not dare to turn on their lights. They only turned on their searchlights occasionally, so Wang Zuo and the others did not know which ship was the most valuable.However, following the order of Admiral Codrington, second and third-class cruisers turned on their searchlights and let themselves fly everywhere on the sea. The armored cruisers of the Dayton class and the brutal class bravely "come out of the boat" and guarded in front of the troop carriers filled with Indian infantry.

Wang Zuo has already targeted a Northampton-class armored cruiser with a standard displacement of more than 7500 tons. This is the second type of steam-powered ironclad built by the British Empire after the Napoleonic Wars. Although it is equipped with a steam engine capable of providing 6000 horsepower, However, the three tall masts that can be used to hang the sails are still retained, and the bow has a mast like a unicorn's horn, and the underwater part of the bow also has a powerful ramming horn!
This mighty-looking iron-clad ship is not afraid of the torpedo boat approaching at high speed. It doesn't even bother to hide the huge hull in the dark. Instead, it turns on all the searchlights, aims at the torpedo boat driven by Wang Zuo, and launches A dazzling light came out!
The torpedo boat caught by the searchlight is a live target. Although the accuracy of the naval guns these days is relatively poor, it cannot hit the torpedo boat at a distance of 4000 meters, but at a distance of 1000 meters, the various artillery on one side of an armored cruiser Together, it is not difficult to sink a small torpedo boat.With a speed of up to 13.17 knots in the Northampton class, it is not a big problem to avoid a 6.5-knot compressed air torpedo.

Therefore, this suicidal torpedo boat assault launched by the Ming army has failed!

"The Ming army's raid has failed!" Admiral Codrington saw that the beams of light from the searchlight had locked on more than ten torpedo boats. He was finally relieved, showed a relaxed smile, and said to Elfin Stone said, "Colonel, it looks like we'll be taking Muscat soon!"

Just when Admiral Codrington was full of confidence, he predicted that the attack by the Ming Navy had failed.The torpedo launchers under Wang Zuo's command were all in place, and their torpedo boats cut into the attack from a 65-degree angle.The torpedo tubes on the boat turned sideways at an angle, and a sailor who was in charge of aiming behind the torpedo tube put half of his body outside the small torpedo boat, squinted his eyes, and tried to aim the launch tube at a distance of 5000 meters. The big warship that shines its searchlight on itself.I saw him holding a red flag in his hand, and shouted at the same time: "Let go!"

A torpedo soldier in charge of launching immediately shouted: "Torpedo. Launch!"

While he was shouting, both hands had simultaneously pressed the wrenches on the left and right torpedo tubes.Only two "bang bang" sounds were heard. Under the action of air pressure, two 530mm steam gas torpedoes had been ejected out of the thick launching tubes and plunged into the choppy sea water.The torpedo motor drives the propeller installed at the tail to start rotating at an extremely fast speed. Under the push of the propeller, the two torpedoes are quickly accelerated to a high speed of 40 knots!
This is an unbelievable high speed, and what is even more unbelievable is that this torpedo powered by an internal combustion engine can hit 5000 meters away!You must know that the main guns of today's battleships are not very accurate at a distance of 7000 meters, and the ideal artillery battle distance between battleships is within 5000 meters!

After the two 530mm torpedoes were launched, the torpedo boat driven by Wang Zuo suddenly lightened and jumped up and down at a much faster speed.But without the torpedoes, Wang Zuo is looking for death if he drives the torpedo boat to charge. The most important thing now is to feel like running away.So he immediately turned to the steering wheel, steered the torpedo boat to turn around, and prepared to circle around the stern of the armored cruiser in front of him and flee the battlefield north.

And it was not only Wang Zuo's torpedo boat that turned at the same time, almost all the torpedo boats on the sea turned at the same time at the same time, starting the full-speed escape mode.

"They. ran away?"

Colonel Elphinstone, who was holding up his binoculars to watch the torpedo boat blow up, showed a contemptuous expression while speaking.

He actually got away!Regardless of the dignity of the soldiers, the so-called military power of the Great Ming Dynasty seems to be nothing more than that.

Admiral Codrington sighed: "It's a pity"

As soon as his words fell, a scene that left everyone dumbfounded suddenly happened.

Just as the torpedo boats of the Ming army on the sea turned around one after another, a huge water column suddenly rose from the starboard midship of the Northampton armored cruiser with a standard displacement of more than 7500 tons, and there were still flames flickering in the water column.

In the mist, Codrington could only see that the 7500-ton ironclad ship that once made Rakshasa, Prussia, France and Austria deeply feel that the Royal Navy was invincible had not had time to show its powerful firepower. , began to roll over at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then sank at an extremely fast speed. As the Northampton sank rapidly, there were one, two, three, and four loud noises on the sea. ring!
Immediately afterwards, the people in the bridge of the battleship Revenge exclaimed.

"My God! The Shannon"

"The Bull"

"Oh, my goodness the Oxford. She's gone too!"

"Oh, look, Plassey, it looks like she's been torpedoed too!"

how can that be?Codrington couldn't believe his ears. 2 armored cruisers, 1 second-tier cruiser, and 2 third-tier cruisers, a total of 5 cruisers are all over?
Codrington quickly raised his binoculars and looked around on the sea. After a look, he found that there were really three or four very large ships on the other side of the sea transfer area, either flipping and sinking, or with their heads down Drilling into the water, or the bottom of the boat entering the water, the lightest thing is that the hull is seriously tilted but is restoring balance, and it should be flooding to the other side.

But even so, Codrington inexplicably lost 2 cruisers and 2 third-tier cruisers
"Admiral, Admiral," Elphinstone said in a trembling voice, "are we going to retreat?"

"Retreat?" Codrington looked at Elphinstone with a livid face. "If you retreat now, wouldn't the Royal Navy sacrifice in vain? Now, let your people land quickly! I need to capture Muscat!"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Admiral!"

(End of this chapter)