Chapter 990: The Destruction of the New British Mediterranean Fleet

The French Grand Orient Fleet has 23 battleships, four of which have been overhauled. They are survivors of the last Mediterranean naval battle.

Seven of the eleven battleships damaged in the previous battle with the British were completely scrapped, not to mention the countless small and medium-sized ships that were destroyed, which greatly damaged the strength of the Grand Orient Fleet.

However, the British at this time could not care so much. The arrival of reinforcements alone was enough to make them ecstatic.

The scale of the French Grand Orient Fleet still looks huge. After all, the leaders of the Second French Republic do not want to be underestimated by the British.

Rebuilding a fleet in a short period of time? This is of course impossible!

But they can lease and forcibly requisition. After all, this is an economic crisis, and with the alternation of the old and new dynasties, there are as many reasons as they want.

With the support of the government of the Second French Republic, the sailors of the Grand Orient Fleet were not polite and brought all the merchant ships that evaded taxes, evaded taxes, owed taxes, and had no connections in the government.

As mentioned above, there was no insurmountable gap between large merchant ships and small and medium-sized warships at this time. The shipyard of the Great Eastern Fleet had more than 100 warships after simple modifications.

At this time, the Great Eastern Fleet looked like a cloud of sails, covering the sky and the sun. Old Edward Hobart Seymour and all the British sailors believed that the Austrian Imperial Navy would definitely retreat.

Although the Austrian Navy seemed to have an absolute advantage and had been chasing the British fleet, in fact, the advantage was not as great as it seemed, otherwise there would be no need to chase it all the time.

Friedrich was certainly confident that he could solve the British in one go, but the Austrian Navy could not afford such a loss.

And such a style of play was inconsistent with Franz's strategy. This was the founding war before Franz ascended the throne. He needed to ensure that the British would not continue to cause trouble for Austria for at least five years.

The British New Mediterranean Fleet rushed towards the French Great Eastern Fleet without thinking. At this time, the British had only one idea in their minds - escape.

As long as they join the French, their chances of survival will be greatly improved, whether they fight against the Austrian fleet together with the French or leave the French and escape alone.

All the British ships are fleeing desperately, and those old ships are left behind all of a sudden. The Austrian Navy will naturally not miss this opportunity.

After a series of defeats, the blood and morale of the British sailors are exhausted at this time.

Finally, the captain of the British ship "Brave" decided to lower the original British Empire battle flag and raise the white flag to surrender to the Austrian Empire Navy.

However, the Austrian Navy, as if it did not see the raised white flag, sent the old sailing battleship to the bottom of the sea with continuous salvos.

In fact, before the war, Friedrich had already warned with flag language that this would be a deadly battle at sea, and if you want to surrender, just leave the team and go ashore.

But no British warship did this at the time, so in the eyes of the Austrian side, the British accepted this deadly battle by default.

In the sail era, there was a very complicated process for accepting the surrender of ships, and the Austrian Empire was a traditional land power, and they missed that era perfectly.

After its establishment, the Austrian Navy spent 99% of its time fighting pirates and inland bandits, which was often a life-and-death battle. They had no mature experience in accepting surrenders.

In addition, the reputation of the British Navy was too bad, and they did not do too many things like pretending to surrender and launching sneak attacks.

Austria was a Catholic country and did not allow slavery, so they only had one way to deal with pirates, which was to kill them directly.

In the last Mediterranean naval battle, Friedrich suffered from the British. After all, for any sailor who loves the ocean, watching a ship sink in front of his eyes is a pain.

So the Austrian Navy had also accepted the surrender of some ships of the British Navy before. However, when the two sides approached and prepared for the surrender ceremony, the British sailors suddenly attacked and fired grapeshot at close range, almost clearing the people on the deck of the Austrian warship.

Moreover, the Austrian Navy had no experience in boarding battles and was no match for the British sailors. In addition, almost all commanders from the captain down were killed in the first attack. The Austrian warship that went to accept the surrender of the British Navy became the spoils of the other side.

After the British ship that tried to surrender sank, other British warships that fell behind suffered the same fate.

However, Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. could not care less at this time. He ordered the flag bearer to send a flag signal to the French Grand Orient Fleet, hoping that the Grand Orient Fleet would join them in fighting against the Austrians.

The French flagship quickly sent a flag signal to agree, but they did not give the British a way out, but instead formed a battle formation.

It was normal for the French to ask the British not to retreat, but why did the French come so late?

Before Edward Hobart Seymour Sr. had time to think about it, the French Grand Orient Fleet suddenly launched an attack on the British New Mediterranean Fleet.

A round of salvos from the entire Grand Orient Fleet stunned the unprepared British, and the reinforcements turned into enemy forces in an instant. The despair after experiencing hope made people even more desperate.

Moreover, neither Austria nor France had the intention to accept the British surrender. The mentally collapsed British army was soon annihilated under the attack of the Austrian and French Grand Orient Fleets.

At this time, almost all the British captains chose to die with their ships, and even the Austrian and French navies, who were enemies, had to pay tribute to them.

Both Archduke Friedrich, the commander of the Austrian Navy, and Francois Trovier, the commander of the French Grand Orient Fleet, walked onto the bridge to salute their opponents.

The naval bands of the two countries also played Chopin's "Funeral March" at the same time, and the soldiers fired their guns to salute them.

But all British warships must be sunk, which is related to the survival of the two countries. Friedrich did not regret it. If it happened again, he would still kill the British.

However, not all British officers were so courageous. Old Edward Hobart Seymour stepped on a sampan and held up a white flag and his ribbon.

"I am the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet! I demand surrender! You must protect my personal safety!"

Francois Trovier, the commander of the French Grand Orient Fleet, ignored the old man. For Francois Trovier, capturing the British commander was not an honor, but a trouble, so he chose to leave.

The British commander was also a trouble for Friedrich and Austria. It would be best if he died, but at this time, under the attention of the media, Friedrich directly threw down the rope to accept the surrender of Edward Hobart Seymour.

As for the surrender of other British sailors, Austria did not accept it, but gave them some small boats, dry food and water and gave them "freedom".

After that, the Austrian Navy also chose to leave quickly. The Russian merchant ship next to it could not carry too many British sailors, so it left quickly after loading dozens of people.