319 Precaution

"The unicorn number has entered the list!"

"The Unicorn entered the formation, recovered, and cleared. The admiral ordered to maintain the current marching queue, and ordered the Golden Deer to go forward for six kilometers, and the alert period was two hours!"

On March 24, 1780, seven high-spirited warships hung bright Mizi flags and sailed on the verdant coastline of the Miskito Kingdom at a speed of five knots.

They are Nelson's sea fleet.

The fleet in the marching state is showing a loose and not very standard [V] shape. After the middle crash, there are frigates HMS Hinchinbrook and HMS Prairie Lion running side by side.

They were also admirals and second-admirals of the whole fleet, Nelson's Hinchinbrook on the left and Cornwallis' Prairie Lion on the right.

Hinchinbrook's port side is the Golden Deer, which is two hulls beyond, and the one hull ahead to the left is Pierce's Eros, and on the far left is the Cyclops, the speed benchmark of the entire fleet.

On the starboard side of the Prairie Lion is the Unicorn, Captain Collingwood, who has just completed a round of alert. The three hulls in front of the right of the Unicorn are the Black Goat, acting as the inner defense closest to the coastline.

There was a tense atmosphere all over the fleet.

The sea-seeking operation started two weeks ago. Lorraine sent Leif and the low-key and reliable Daniel, who just joined, and pulled two 15-meter-long medium-sized Sroop sloops Cactus and Dahlia from Olves. The Chrysanthemum, together with the returning Cangqing Luzhu, jointly formed the advance supply fleet.

They hired twenty young men on the island of Providencia, and offered a one-year, non-discriminatory chamber of commerce contract, which moved the old village head of the selected indigenous village to the point of crying to death.

Lorraine and Nelson met with the boys, all of them between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, strong young men with at least two years of fishing experience.

Although Leif and Daniel hid most of the details from them, they were still optimistic and their morale was high. When asked about their views on the operation, each of them looked like they were going through fire and water, obviously very satisfied with their contracts.

This gave Nelson three points of confidence in the entire operation.

So on March 20, a supply fleet disguised as an indigenous fishing boat entered the mouth of the San Juan River ahead of schedule. After waiting for them for four days, the Lanhai Fleet, which had not received any bad news, officially set sail and headed for the landing area in the form of a combat team.

This short route of more than 100 kilometers and a journey of no more than 12 hours will be the key to the success of the entire operation.

Standing on the bow of the Golden Deer facing the sea breeze, Lorraine accurately heard the dispatcher's order.

Forward alert is a routine action in formation marching, especially in areas controlled by the enemy and us, or in complex seas strewn with islands and reefs.

The San Juan estuary had both, so Nelson was extra vigilant in arranging the watch.

The entire fleet takes 2 hours as a round. The Cyclops, which is most suitable for use as a scout ship, is in charge of the first and last two shifts. The Eros, the Unicorn, the Golden Deer and the Black Goat are in charge of the middle four shifts. The slow-moving prairie lion And Hinchinbrook did not participate in the forward, and the whole process was absolutely undisturbed.

The Golden Deer is the fourth shift, which means that the fleet sailed away from Lucy Fields for 6 hours, approaching or even entering the Spanish control area.

"The whole ship has entered the second level of alert, personnel are on duty, and the sailors on duty are called."

Lorraine ordered slowly.

"Reply to the admiral ship, the order has been received, and the Golden Deer has left the formation. Tell the Eros, the Golden Deer has left the formation, and please Vice President Artis to gather the formation."

"Golden Deer, full sail, wings spread, five kilometers forward, let's go!"

The order was issued, and the whole ship agitated.

With a sound of command, the half-furled sail was stretched out and bulged round against the wind.

The sailor on the yard unfastened the wing sails, opened the attached sails which were much larger than the broadside, lowered the sail hawsers and tied them tightly, stretched straight, just like putting wings on the Golden Deer, the speed of the whole ship suddenly increased, and it burst open like an arrow. The waves rushed straight to the vast sea in the distance.

Nelson and Major Spencer watched the Golden Hart fly away side by side.

The major was dazzled by the sight, and sighed softly: "I don't know if it's an illusion, but I always feel that the Golden Deer is much faster than the previous Cupid and Unicorn."

"That's not an illusion." Nelson cursed enviously, "Drake is an addict who is crazy about high-speed and adventurous life. The Golden Deer was originally just an ordinary destroyer, but Drake plugged her in." Wings."

"Wings?" Major Spencer pointed to the flapping sails on both sides. "Those unusual sails?"

"They are called wing sails, which can greatly increase the speed of the warship at a specific wind cutting angle, but at the same time reduce the flexibility and stability of the hull."

"This is a crazy design that chases the wind or even favors the wind. Under normal circumstances, warships above Tier 5 seldom use it." Nelson smiled helplessly. "In fact, ships with more than 40 doors pursue stability. The sail can't greatly increase the speed of sailing, at most it can only make the wing sail ship surpass the same type of ship in terms of acceleration ability as before."

The major showed a blank expression: "Since the advantages are few and the disadvantages are many..."

"That's why I say that guy is an addict. The speed advantage of about 1 knot, the acceleration advantage of more than three times, these alone are enough to make him crazy."

...

The Golden Deer galloped through the wind.

After going through the initial acceleration stage, the speed of the Golden Deer quickly stabilized, maintaining a medium speed of 8.5 knots in an environment with not too good wind direction, and the relative speed of the formation was 3.5 knots.

Nelson's order is to go forward for 5 kilometers, so the Golden Deer should maintain this speed for about 45 minutes, and then drop back to the same 5 knots as the formation, forming a relatively static state, protruding like an arrow at the forefront of the entire formation.

Due to his personality, Lorraine likes this kind of openness and heartiness without ships.

The southern Caribbean landscape is very different from the northern seas that Lorraine is most familiar with.

On the right hand side is the dark green oil painting of the Central American coastline.

Dark green is the color of the rainforest. This ancient rainforest stretches from the east coast to Lake Nicaragua. It is full of precious animals and plants that are worth gold, and deadly poisonous insects and beasts can be seen everywhere.

It was it that blocked the British advance from the Mosquito Coast to Managua.

If you want to touch the essence of Nicaragua, besides detouring South America, the only option is to take the San Juan River controlled by the Spaniards.

On the left-hand side of Lorraine, there are scattered islands and reefs everywhere on the vast continental shelf, many of which are sudden shoals and scattered coral clumps reflecting the sea surface, and occasionally islands, large and small, lined up in rows, all of which are strange peaks and abrupt , Strange rocks.

Turning around Cape Mono, not far away is the Maïs Islands hanging overseas.

This archipelago is composed of two large and small Mais islands and contiguous reefs, covering hundreds of acres of land and sea area, and is only suitable for detours, not for crossing.

In the chart of the Royal Navy, this archipelago is marked as an uninhabited island. The original indigenous people were plundered by the Spaniards more than a hundred years ago. Since then, no new population has moved in, and it has been barren until now.

It is said that a Spanish treasure fleet sank in the nearby waters because of a storm, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of wealth were buried on the seabed.

However, hundreds of acres of sea area cannot be explored by humans. How deep was the fleet full of treasures blown by the wind, where did it hit the rocks, and in which direction did it struggle?

neither knows.

Every drop of sea water in the Caribbean melts stories of sunken ships and treasures. Lorraine suddenly thought that if there was a Nautilus, he might be enough to become the richest man in the world just by salvaging the sunken ship.

Just thinking about it, the wind direction suddenly changed.

The high mountains of Grand Mais block the wind belt, and the wind circles towards the side of the island, with a declination angle of about 30 degrees.

The disadvantage of wing sails is obvious. Once the proper angle is lost, the cumbersome sails will not become auxiliary arms, but will affect the stability of the hull.

Lorraine frowned in dissatisfaction, ordered the left rudder to turn 10 degrees, and chased the wind around the island.

The wide open sea area of ​​Damays is gradually revealed in front of Lorraine. On that sea area... there are ships!

"encounter!"

Just as Lorraine spotted the facing ship, shouts erupted from the watchtower.

"At 11 o'clock in front of the ship, there is a fourth-level Galenic frigate, a fifth-level Galenic destroyer, and a sixth-level high-speed Brig, forming a diagonal cruise formation from the back of the island and facing each other! "

"Target flag confirmed, it is the Royal Spanish Navy!"

"The opponent has spotted us! Brig is charging towards us, the distance between the two sides is 3 kilometers, and the relative speed is 15 knots!"

"Contact within 7 minutes!"

"Enemy attack!!!"

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