I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 766: Tearing a Small Hole in the Blockade Chain (Please Double the Monthly Tickets)
At dawn the next day, the Leisure turned towards Sweden, preparing to replenish its cargo there.

This will definitely take some time, but it is better than sailing to North America with an empty ship.

However, just as the schooner had gone less than 20 nautical miles north, the lookout once again raised his shrill voice and sounded the alarm.

Two minutes later, Madno finally saw a British frigate rushing towards him from the left front of the Leisure.

In the past two months, the area from the English Channel to the North Sea has been roaming everywhere with British warships like hungry wolves. If you are unlucky, you will encounter a few of them.

The Leisure was apparently unlucky.

Moreover, this time the British warship was very cunning. It used a reef to block the view and was only less than 8 chains away from here.

One nautical mile is 1 chains. In the vast Atlantic Ocean, the two ships were almost face to face.

The Leisure desperately turned left, but the sailboat needed to make a large arc to turn around. When it was heading in the same direction as the British warship, Maderno could already see the colors of the British uniforms in the distance with his naked eyes.

The British sailors' ship-handling skills were clearly superior. Only 20 minutes later, the frigate appeared more than 200 yards behind the side of the "Leisure" and sent out a flag signal of "Stop immediately and accept search."

The "Leisure" naturally would not stop obediently.

A month ago, Britain announced a "total trade embargo" on France, allowing the British Navy to capture and detain any French merchant ship.

Stopping the ship at this time would mean being arrested by the British, with only two possible outcomes: imprisonment or hard labor.

After a few minutes of stalemate, the British warships opened fire.

Accompanied by a deafening roar, seven or eight huge splashes of water appeared around the "Leisure", shocking everyone on the ship so much that they shouted in horror, "Run" and "Speed ​​up".

The British gunners were very skilled. After two rounds of calibration firing, two 18-pound shells accurately hit the Leisure, tearing a hole in its stern cabin and gun deck.

Maderno could hear the triumphant shouts of British officers in the distance, probably urging them to reload.

He closed his eyes in despair.

If this continues, the Leisure will be sunk in no time...

"Mr. Madno!" The boatswain suddenly ran over and shouted to him, "Please give us an order. What should we do now?"

"Me? Give orders?"

"Yes, yes. The captain is dead, and Mr. Juneau is seriously injured. You are now the acting captain!"

Juneau was the first mate on the ship.

Madno suddenly felt dizzy.

He just came to follow the smuggling ship to earn some living expenses. How could he have the qualifications to command the "Leisure" to deal with the British warships?

The British cannons sounded again, and the hull of the "Leisure" shook violently again. It was unknown where it was hit.

Madno hesitated for only a second, then said to the boatswain with a pale face: "Raise the white flag, lower the sail, surrender..."

"Oh, alright."

The boatswain was about to turn around when he heard the lookout shout, "There's a ship coming at 4 o'clock!"

Madno subconsciously raised the telescope and looked, but was stunned.

It was a strangely shaped three-masted sailing ship, flying the French blue fleur-de-lis flag, and it was heading straight towards this side.

On the suddenly appearing three-masted sailing ship, Baron Foucade looked at the British frigate in the distance and shook his head nervously: "Mr. Barr, the 'Cloud' is carrying out an important mission, you shouldn't take such a risk." Captain Michel Barr smiled and said: "Don't worry, I am sure I can get out of danger at any time.

"Don't you think we are like a knight challenging a dragon? Oh, my grandfather was a knight. During the Thirty Years' War, he was..."

The lookout's voice came from the megaphone, "The enemy is 700 yards away."

Captain Bar made an apologetic expression to Baron Foucade, turned his head and instructed the first mate: "Turn one compass point to the west, pass by the side of that guy, and be careful to keep a distance."

He shouted into the megaphone again: "Pressure the boiler, prepare to start the propeller."

Baron Foucade looked out the porthole and saw that the gun port cover on the starboard side of the British battleship had been opened. He swallowed hard and whispered, "God bless..."

A few minutes later, the Cloud passed 450 yards to the right of the frigate, and the three guns on the port side spewed flames at the British.

Of course, at such a long distance, it was impossible for the "Yunwu"'s 18-pound guns to damage the enemy ships, but this was like someone spitting at a ferocious beast - not much damage, but extremely insulting.

Sure enough, the British warship seemed to hesitate for a moment, then turned right and headed straight for the "Cloud".

Maderno looked at the strange ship, which was slightly larger than the Leisure, and which led the British away. He was so moved that he almost cried. He immediately turned the rudder hard and fled desperately in the opposite direction.

When the "Leisure" had distanced itself from the British warship, he looked back again and saw billowing black smoke coming out of that brave strange ship.

He raised the telescope in confusion, and then he noticed that there were two wooden wheels like waterwheels at the rear of the strange ship, which had begun to rotate and constantly hit the water.

"What is that?" The newly promoted second mate Demville also saw this scene, "Is it on fire?"

Maderno shook his head. "It's a steamship. I heard about it in Ostend. There are many such ships on the Rhine River. They are very fast."

Demvir nodded with wide eyes.

When the two ships were about to disappear on the sea level, he saw that the distance between the steamship and the frigate behind it had increased a lot.

The "Mist" was not a steam paddle steamer like the ones that sailed on the Rhine. Such a small boat would definitely not be suitable for long-distance ocean voyages.

This is a special merchant ship that was hastily built by the Brest Shipyard two months before the war, at the request of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The power system is the same as that of the paddle steamer for inland shipping, except that it is replaced with an improved version of the LJ26H steam engine, which can provide 29 horsepower.

This steam engine was a bit weak for an ocean-going ship and could only help the ship increase its speed by less than 1 knot.

But one knot was enough to get rid of the entanglement of British warships.

To be honest, paddle steamers are not suitable for sailing on the sea - wind and waves can easily destroy the fragile paddle wheels, and there is no place to replenish coal, but Joseph doesn't care about these.

As long as they could break through the blockade of the offshore area and enter the vast Atlantic Ocean, the possibility of being discovered by the British would become very small.

In the days before radar, finding a ship on the open ocean was more difficult than accurately picking out a grain of wheat in a wheat field.

The British were unable to blockade America as well, so even if the paddle wheel was damaged, it didn't matter, they could just sail across the Atlantic with sails.

This kind of "makeshift" special merchant ship is currently the only means to break through the British maritime blockade.

It is just because the Brest Shipyard uses most of its production capacity on the construction of steam battleships, so there are currently only seven of these special merchant ships.

But it was able to transport back some sugar and cotton from America, which was of strategic significance to France's trade.

After all, for every pound of sugar France gets, Britain gets one less.

You know, since the war broke out, due to the panic over sugar supply in the British market - currently the largest sugar producer in Europe is in France, which provides nearly half of Britain's sugar - this has caused the price of sugar in the UK to rise by 4.2 times compared to before the Caribbean independence movement!
(End of this chapter)