Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 99 St. Augustine ([-])

On January 1, the "Eagle of the East Coast", which returned from Colonia, also entered the Naval Shipyard for final renovations.The main repairs include coating the bottom of the ship with a mixture of tallow and sulfur (to prevent plankton in the sea such as shipworms), replacing damaged sails and damaged gun carriages, and repairing leaky ship decks.

Under the impetus of Wang Qinian, the Joint Staff Headquarters also began to secretly recruit some taciturn and combat-experienced recovered veterans to join the army and organize them into two outposts; A group of 150 volunteers were recruited; these two groups of 314 people have all the equipment for regular army operations, and they will temporarily accept the command of the navy and cooperate in operations.

On January 1, the merchant ship "Butterfly" of the Pasquale family returned from Buenos Aires. Xu Xin, the Minister of Trade, Ming Hui, the deputy director of the textile factory, and Sun Bo, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, traveled together. Boarded the 20-ton armed merchant vessel.They will go to the island of Haiti for a field trip. If there is a chance, they will return to Bordeaux with the "Butterfly" to see if they can open up the French market.

At noon, after a grand farewell banquet, the "Butterfly", accompanied by the two gunboats "East Coast Eagle" and "Red Trout" of the East Coast Republic, slowly sailed out of Dongfang Harbor, and then turned to the northeast , embarked on a return trip.

In addition to the two gunboats that have been refurbished, in addition to being fully loaded with drinking water and food, gunpowder, shells, spare artillery canvas and ship boards, the entire formation also carried a total of 35 sailors and officers, 40 trainee sailors and alternate officers, and 220 gunners. There are 164 people in two sentries of the regular army and 150 people in one company of the public security force, a total of 609 people, which can be described as a large scale.Such a force, generally smaller Spaniard towns really can't bear it.However, for the sake of confidentiality, the traversing people have no plans to carry out landing operations for the time being.

For the candidates for this battle, Wang Qinian and the Ministry of the Navy have also racked their brains.They scrolled through the officers who were familiar with sailing and had war experience, only to find that only Lu Ming, Wang Tiehui, and a dozen others were there, and among them, only Lu Ming was the captain and had commanded naval battles. With Wang Tiehammer.Wang Qinian chose and chose, but in the end he still felt that Lu Ming was more reliable in all aspects.

Originally, the oldest captain in the navy, Lu Ming, had resigned from his position as the captain of the "Eagle of the East Coast" and devoted himself to the new year's enrollment and teaching plan of his nautical school.However, considering that Wang Tiehammer did not have such reliable experience in commanding sailing warships, and there were many trainee sailors from the nautical school on board, he was dragged out again.

Therefore, the commander-in-chief of this small two-ship formation named "Private Formation" in internal documents will be served by Navy Captain Lu Ming.There are two deputy commanders in chief, one is Lieutenant Wang Tiechui, the new captain of the gunboat "Eagle on the East Coast", and the other is Captain Xie Hansan, the army commander accompanying the operation.Lu Ming took the "Eagle of the East Coast" escort gunship as his flagship, and at the same time, Lieutenant Julien d'Eblol was transferred to the ship's first officer.As for the bulky and fat "Galicia Flying Fish", it was left at home as a transport ship. After all, the transportation tasks between Zhenhaibao - Dongfang Port and Dongfang Port - Colonia are also very heavy.

On January 1, the three ships made a brief stop at Zhenhai Fort. The "Eagle of the East Coast" unloaded a batch of building materials and artillery for the construction of a fort here.Then, the three ships headed north again.

On February 2, the fleet berthed at the port of Recife in northeastern Brazil, which is now occupied by the Dutch, and set sail again after replenishing some food and fresh water.

On March 3, after nearly two months of long-distance sailing, the fleet finally arrived at its destination—Cape-de-France (now Cap-Haitien) in the northwest of Haiti Island.

Cape de France is located at the mouth of a river. There are only a small residential area in the port, and it seems that the total number of residents is less than [-].Most are French, with a small number of Spanish and British.The French mainly operated farms and plantations here. They bought black slaves sold by British and Spanish merchants as labor force, and managed large tracts of land in the inland area along the river to the south of Cape-France.

Xu Xin and the others probably knew what the two ships of the navy gang were doing, so they didn't say much, and they parted on the spot at the corner of France.The three of them took a carriage with Julian and Mathilde to the Pasquale family's manor for investigation, while Lu Ming and the others replenished some fresh water and food on the pier, especially paying attention to the replenishment of vegetables and fruits , in case the crew got scurvy.

After resupply, the two ships pulled anchor and set sail, leaving Cape de France and entering the warm Caribbean Sea.

The Caribbean Sea has not been peaceful in recent years, and some sensational pirate attacks often occur.Such as the "Dreck of the Netherlands"-Pieter Hahn attacked a silver fleet from Vera Cruz in 1627 and reaped more than 80 pounds; in 1629, a Dutch fleet in Pat In 1630, Dirk de Rutte and Pierre Ita even blockaded Florida. strait...

The repeated success of pirates in the Caribbean has led to more impoverished sailors flocking to the Caribbean.When Drake returned to Britain with hundreds of thousands of pounds of looted property, he received a hero's welcome.According to the description, almost everyone in the tavern was talking about sailing and wealth. This trend soon spread from England to the European continent, causing countless young people to turn to the promising career of pirates.

There are countless pirates in the Caribbean. In the 17s, the largest gathering place of pirates should be the island of Tortuga, about 30 nautical miles west of the Cape of France.On weekdays, this small island of more than 100 square kilometers gathers hundreds of boats, thousands of pirates, and many unscrupulous businessmen and dissolute dancers who come here admiringly.This is not only a den for pirates to sell their stolen goods, but also a place for them to rest supplies and pass information. The Spanish Navy has organized fleets to attack several times, but it has not been able to eradicate the pirates here.

Naturally, the privateer formations of the East Coast Republic of China would not go to Tortuga Island now. One was afraid of being hacked by people who were unfamiliar with the place, and the second was afraid of revealing their identities.In addition, they brought a few British and Dutch sailors who were former pirates on board as pilots, and they were not afraid of being unfamiliar with the sea conditions. Therefore, after leaving Cape France, they headed northward, crossing the coast of the Turks Islands and the Caicos Islands. , along the eastern coastline of the Bahamas and then turn northwest, toward the east coast of Florida.

The climate in the Caribbean in late March is already a bit hot, but everything seems tolerable under the cool sea breeze. The new first officer of the "Eagle of the East Coast", Julien d'Eblol, patrolled the entire battleship from beginning to end, and he was just promoted to the first officer at the moment when he was in high spirits.From the captain of a transport ship to the first mate of a battleship, not only has the military rank been raised by one level, but it is also a big leap.

Moreover, going to the Caribbean Sea for privateering activities this time will not only continue to make meritorious service, but it may also greatly enrich one's own pockets.You know, the rules set by the executive committee this time are that half of the proceeds from looting will be turned over to the national treasury, [-]% will be used for shipbuilding funds and the introduction and training of naval talents (including shipbuilders), and the remaining [-]% ​​will be distributed as rewards to officers participating in the battle And soldiers, and in the middle, the officers will always earn a lot more than the soldiers.

At this time, the wind was blowing from the southwest on the sea, and the ship was sailing smoothly. The sailors were scrubbing the deck boredly, and only the watchman was still dutifully watching into the distance.The gunners wore white cotton round-neck shirts, sitting on the deck and chatting. Some of them were still chewing shredded tobacco, which they bought from the locals when they docked in Cape de France. good.The officers were all sitting on the bridge on the third floor of the poop and chatting in twos and threes. This is the Bahamas area where pirates gather, so Lu Ming ordered everyone to come up from the officer's lounge in the bilge and stand by.

No one, whether an officer or a soldier, wore a navy uniform, but an unmarked white round-neck cotton shirt to conceal their identities.

The Bahamas at this time has only a few spontaneous settlements scattered among her more than 700 islets.There are also very few residents, and most of them are farm operators turned from pirates. They are inextricably linked with the major pirate forces that are now criss-crossing the Caribbean.Pirates who have committed crimes often come here to hide, waiting for the wind to pass.

Of course, there are also some powerful pirate forces who use this place as their base to attack the Spanish Florida colony, or ambush transport ships bound for St. Augustine, Florida, in the direction of Mexico and Cuba.These pirate gangs had as few as one or two ships and as many as a dozen ships. They appeared and disappeared in this complicated sea area, making the Spaniards hard to guard against and extremely headaches.Many Florida towns were forced to pay some notorious pirates in exchange for not being attacked.

Several seabirds hovered over the "Eagle of the East Coast", which means that the ship has sailed near certain islands.In fact, according to the chart description, the ship should currently be sailing in the waters between New Providence Island and Eleuthera Island.It is always dangerous at this time, because there may be some pirate ships hidden in the hidden bays of these islands.

Sure enough, the watchman quickly noticed the movement.

(End of this chapter)