Chapter 792: Battle of Genoa III

No. 73

In fact, sailing warships sometimes use this arc formation to attack.

But sailing ships adjust their angles slowly. Once they are arranged in an arc, it takes a lot of time to regroup if they want to maneuver in a horizontal formation.

So unless their side has an absolute advantage, sailing warships basically fight in line formations.

And the maneuverable and flexible steam ships do not have this concern. As long as the sailors are skilled in operating the ship, they can complete the formation change in a few minutes, so they can let go and shoot in the best attack method.

This is also the reason why Bourne felt that the firepower of the French warships was too fierce.

Under the interference of the French warships, the "Four-wheeled Carriage" and other ships took seven or eight minutes of artillery shells and failed to get out of the opponent's firepower range.

Hotham finally couldn't sit still.

Although the loss of a few cruisers and frigates was nothing, those French boats surrounded and beat his ship under his nose, which was a complete humiliation!

He suppressed his anger and said to the messenger: "Raise the flag, move the battle line eastward, and prepare to attack the enemy fleet."

On the sea in the distance, the British cruiser "White Coral" seemed to be hit by the ammunition compartment and began to burn fiercely. The sailors jumped into the sea with wailing, forming a circle of raindrop-like ripples around the ship.

The "Four-wheeled Carriage" and "Quartz Sand" were seriously damaged and began to tilt. Several other ships were also injured to varying degrees and floated in place, almost losing their maneuverability.

Only two paddle boats were lucky enough to escape the battle because they were at the end of the formation.

In just ten minutes, the British cruiser formation that went to disrupt the formation of the French fleet had lost more than half of its troops. This damage efficiency was so high in the era of sailing warships that it could be included in naval textbooks.

On the other side, the British battleship formation sailed at full sail and pounced on the French warships.

Hotham looked at the enemy ships outside the porthole and made a silent estimate in his heart.

2000 yards.

1500 yards.

1200 yards.

He was about to order a battle when he saw the French flagship raising the signal flag.

The 30 or so small boats immediately accelerated with great efficiency, turned around, and then headed northeast in a mess.

The speed was as fast as a hyena that had just eaten the lion's prey and was happily running away.

When the British battle line met the "Four-wheeled Carriage" and other warships, there was only a large white track on the sea and a faint smell of coal smoke in the air. The French ship had appeared a mile away.

Two British cruisers and a frigate were on the verge of sinking, and the other three were in very bad condition. I don't know if they can hold on until they are towed back to the port.

Hotham felt that he had nowhere to vent his anger, and punched the steering wheel frame hard.

"Damn the French, these cowards, cowards!" He gritted his teeth and growled, "Come and have a manly fight with me!"

The French fleet in the distance seemed to have heard his words, and quickly circled around, turned around, and still sailed towards Hotham from the north in the seemingly loose formation as before.

Hotham sneered and loudly ordered the battle line to adjust its direction, move to the upwind, and try to face the enemy with the side.

Half an hour later, the French steam battleship formation surpassed Hotham's battle line and took the lead in occupying the upwind on the west side.

The British commander's face began to look a little unnatural.

At first, it was obvious that his position was further west, and the French ship also circled north to avoid him, but he actually arrived at the upwind position first.

He had to order the formation to tighten, keep the bow pointing northeast, and prepare for the impact of the enemy ships.

To be honest, he was not afraid of the French fleet attacking.

With the solid hull of the third-class ship and the firepower of up to 74 heavy guns, even if the wind direction is unfavorable, those French small boats can be quickly destroyed.

Then, the French warships moved.

With the wind, the speed directly soared to more than 12 knots, and almost in the blink of an eye, they arrived 800 yards away from the British battle line.

Then, they suddenly turned right, and in Hotham's surprised eyes, they drove to the end of the British battle line at a very fast speed.

There was no intention to engage in a battle line shooting.

Hotham was a little confused, but soon realized that the French small boats could not shoot at him, and hurriedly ordered to adjust the direction of the formation and keep the side facing the enemy.

But the speed of the steamship with the upper hand was completely incomparable to the clumsy third and fourth-class battleships.

The steamship was fully powered, constantly adjusting the angle, and then rushed past the southernmost end of the British battle line in an extremely unreasonable way.

The fourth-class battleship "Roughfin Shark" at the southern end desperately turned around, but when the French battleship passed by 400 yards away from it, it was still facing the other side with its tail.

No mistake, one shot, one content, one look!

The French cruiser poured a round of shells at the "Roughfin Shark" in the form of a reverse "T-shaped horizontal head", or should it be called "T-shaped horizontal tail".

Although each ship had only one chance to fire a salvo, after the continuous bombardment of seven or eight ships in front and behind, the stern of the "Roughfin Shark" was already eroded, and even the stern sail was seriously damaged.

The French fleet did not want to fight at all. When the fourth-class ship finally turned around with difficulty, the steamships that did not join the attack immediately turned sharply to distance themselves.

Hotham watched those guys with black smoke going away, and he really wanted to order a pursuit, but reason told him that with the speed of his own formation, it was impossible to catch up.

The staff reported to him the damage of the "Thickfin Shark".

Fortunately, it was not too serious and could still continue to fight, but the stern sail was broken, which might slightly affect the speed.

Hotham ordered a ship to go to the rear of the formation and protect the "Thickfin Shark" in the middle.

Then, he saw the French warship spewing black smoke and rushing over viciously from a mile away.

At this moment, he remembered the hyena group he saw when he went hunting in Africa a few years ago.

Each of them is much smaller than a lion, and they are no match for the lion in a head-on fight, but they always use their own flexibility to harass the lion when the lion is eating.

Many times, he saw hyenas successfully eat the prey captured by the lion, and even bite the lion all over in a sneak attack.

At this moment, the French warships that were "howling" towards this side were simply a group of hyenas.

And he was like a powerful but helpless lion...

This time he ordered three battleships to protect the rear of the formation in a column. But after those "hyenas" circled his battle line several times, they successfully pulled out a gap and took the opportunity to launch a "T-head attack" on the "Caesar" which was a little far away from the formation.

After damaging the bow girder of the "Caesar", they sailed away again.

It was not until dark that the French fleet stopped harassing and sailed southeast, gradually disappearing on the sea level.