The Fox of France

Chapter 284: The Battle (2)

All three warships engaged in the fierce battle had taken note of the British actions. However, because the British were still flying the American flag as they retreated, those on the "Liberty Trade" still considered them to be Americans.

"When did Americans become so good at betraying their allies?" Lafayette had some previous dealings with Americans and in his impression, they might be a bit rough around the edges, but they were generally good-hearted and didn't seem like the type to excel at this sort of treachery.

Nonetheless, the British didn't care what the French thought and made a hasty retreat. Their departure immediately altered the entire course of the battle. The French fleet in the harbor began to sortie, adding a patrol frigate and three small gunboats. Even just considering the number of ships, the French now held the upper hand.

Approaching the "American," which was heading towards the "Liberty Trade," naturally, noticed this change. Colonel Matthews, in charge of command, immediately realized that they had lost this battle. Given the current situation, even without considering the French reinforcements, their two ships would find it challenging to stand up against the French steamship. Adding the French reinforcements, escaping or victory seemed almost impossible.

However, even so, the "American" had to get closer and fire at the enemy ships to rescue the "Congress," which was being pummeled with no means to return fire.

The distance between the two sides continued to shrink, and the "American" was now less than two hundred meters from the "Liberty Trade."

The nine large guns on the left side of the "Liberty Trade" hadn't had a chance to fire until now. With the enemy ship closing in, they began firing at the "American."

At a distance of just over two hundred meters, rifled cannons were still quite effective. Out of nine shots, two hit their mark, and one of them was a precise hit on the "American's" foremast shroud.

This single cannonball had nearly devastating consequences. The foremast shroud was the part that held the triangular sails. It provided most of the windward sailing power and was essential for controlling a sailboat. After taking a hit, the robust foremast shroud snapped into two pieces with a resounding crack.

The broken foremast shroud fell directly into the sea, entangled with numerous ropes that held sails and connected to other masts. As it dropped into the sea during the ship's high-speed voyage, the ropes immediately pulled taut and caused the ship to list to the right.

"Quick, cut the ropes!" Matthews ordered urgently.

The Americans did a commendable job; several sailors rushed in with axes and quickly severed the ropes, preventing a more significant crisis, like the main mast being pulled down. However, after losing the foremast shroud, the "American's" speed had clearly decreased, and control became more challenging.

"Send a signal to the 'Congress' to retreat." Faced with the current situation, Matthews issued a new order with a heavy heart, "Now, let's fight with all our might, delay the enemy, and cover the 'Congress' in its retreat."

Matthews' command was conveyed using signal flags. However, the "Congress" had already taken a beating from the "Liberty Trade." And since it was significantly slower than the French, the question remained whether the "Congress" could escape.

Yet, the "Liberty Trade" also faced an issue – its limited supply of cannonballs.

The "Liberty Trade" used breech-loading rifled steel cannons, which fired a different type of ammunition compared to conventional cannonballs and were much more technologically advanced. While the round iron balls used in other cannons were widely available, the ammunition for breech-loading cannons was not produced anywhere in the Americas. They had to rely on the cannonballs they brought with them. Every shot was a loss. The "Liberty Trade" still needed to preserve enough ammunition for its return journey.

During this voyage, the navy's main task for the "Liberty Trade" was to test its long-range capabilities, and they hadn't anticipated this much combat. They believed that with high enough speed, the "Liberty Trade" wouldn't be in significant danger, so they even intentionally carried fewer ammunition to make room for more things they deemed more helpful for their long-range experiment.

So, at this point, while the Americans were undoubtedly in distress, the French were also getting anxious about their ammunition levels. The "Liberty Trade" was running dangerously low on ammunition.

On the other hand, without high-explosive shells, sinking a large ship like the "American" or the "Congress" with solid shot alone was nearly impossible. Even if they lowered their expectations to just disabling the enemy ships, it would require a significant amount of ammunition. The "Liberty Trade" didn't even have enough ammunition to achieve that second goal. Therefore, the "Liberty Trade" was faced with a choice: which American cruiser to pursue.

Captain Lafayette quickly made a decision. He abandoned the "Congress" and focused on attacking the "American," trying to keep it behind. Not only was the "American" already damaged, making it easier to handle, but capturing a ship named "America" sounded more enticing than capturing a ship named "Congress."

In a sense, it was somewhat foolish to name warships after countries or nationalities. These vessels, often lost or damaged in warfare, could have a significant impact on the morale of an entire nation.

For instance, during World War II, the Germans initially made the mistake of naming a vessel used for daring raids "Deutschland." However, as soon as the war started, they realized that this ship might not last very long, and headlines like "Deutschland Sunk" or "Royal Navy Sinks Deutschland" were inauspicious. To avoid this, they had to change the ship's name, eventually turning "Deutschland Sunk" into "Lutzow Sunk."

Even the Germans' ally, the footbath chicken (Japan), named a battleship after their nation, "Bathing Hut." However, when it came time to use it, they were concerned that losing a ship with such an ominous name would bring bad luck. So, for most of the time, it ended up staying in port.

As "Congress" attempted to put some distance between itself and the battle, the "Liberty Trade" didn't pursue but instead turned toward the "American." With confidence in their defense, the "Liberty Trade" even spared the T-position. Instead, it aligned its broadside with that of the "American." This meant that "American" had more opportunities to fire, but as a target, the projection area of the "American's" broadside was significantly larger than its bow. Given the shared direction of movement, the hit rate on this kind of target would be much higher. Considering the "Liberty Trade" was running low on ammunition, attacking from this angle would efficiently utilize each cannonball.

When the "Liberty Trade" shifted its primary target to the "American," the "American" quickly found itself in a predicament. Utilizing its superior maneuverability, the "Liberty Trade" maintained a distance of about fifty meters from the "American." At this distance, the cannons on the "Liberty Trade" could guarantee a high hit rate, while the large guns on the "American" couldn't penetrate the "Liberty Trade's" hanging steel armor.

Additionally, the remarkable firing rate of the cannons on the "Liberty Trade" for this era allowed them to fire at least three to four rounds in the time it took the "American" to fire one shot. After several volleys, the gun deck of the "American" was in chaos, with blood flowing like a river.

"They should be surrendering by now," Captain Lafayette said, looking at the "American" not far away. "They've given it their all, and surrendering at this point wouldn't damage their honor."

At this moment, a long triangular red flag was raised on the mast of the "American."

"They've raised the St. George's flag," Lafayette sighed. "Well, it's the 'American,' and no matter what, it has to fight to the end. God help us, we don't have a warship named 'France.'"

"St. George's flag?" Victor, who wasn't very familiar with naval matters, asked, "I remember St. George's flag is the white background with a red cross, right, England's flag?"

"That's England's national flag," Lafayette explained, "But in the navy, there's another St. George's flag representing the courage and desperation of a warship. Yes, that one over there. The flag means: Fight to the death, never surrender."