The thick plume of smoke made the Americans and the British the first to discover the "Free Trade", after all, once the steam engine was activated, this feature was difficult to hide. This is especially true when warships are still using coal as fuel for boilers.

In later generations, when the steam engines on warships gradually switched to burning heavy oil, because when the heavy oil was completely burned, the soot produced was much smaller, and it was easy to spread in the air. A little farther away, you can't see much of it. (Of course, when the steam turbine is just started, no matter which country's ship, black smoke will billows for a while)

But it's not the same with coal burning, especially if it's bituminous coal. As for why not use anthracite, well, after all, those coal mines in Europe are generally not particularly coal-oriented, and anthracite is quite rare. In addition, there are many unreasonable places in the design of boilers in this era, and many times they cannot make the fuel fully burned, and the result is that the "Free Trade" runs with black smoke, which is comparable to the aircraft carriers of polar bears in later generations. You might even be able to see it with a telescope on the International Space Station.

The smoke allowed both the Americans and the British to successfully achieve the detection of the enemy, but in this era, the detection of the enemy did not necessarily bring the advantage of the first enemy's attack, at most it allowed the Americans and the British to start the formation first.

It took about half an hour for the "Free Trade" to really appear in the sight of the US-British combined fleet. Of course, at this time, the "Free Trade" had already discovered the fleet in front of it, under the flag of the United States.

Just as the Americans expected, the "Constitution" at this time, because of the shortage of sailors, was just an empty shell with only the ability to sail, but no combat effectiveness at all. Although it still has dozens of cannons on it, because there is not a single gunner on board, so, at least for now, those cannons are basically decorations.

In addition to the lack of gunners, there was also a shortage of soldiers on the ship, with only enough sailors to operate the sails. Therefore, if the enemy really approached and jumped a few soldiers, the ship would have to surrender immediately.

Therefore, in this battle, the "Constitution" is not a help, but a burden.

So after spotting the interceptor fleet, the "Constitution" immediately began to turn and try to withdraw from the battlefield, while the "Free Trade" began to accelerate and rushed towards the enemy fleet to cover the "Constitution" escape.

There are two "super cruisers" like the USS Constitution and a brig gunboat in the authentic U.S. fleet.

All three ships were good in terms of speed, and although the small brig gunboat was theoretically a little slower than the "Constitution", the Americans also took some measures to increase the speed of the ship when they came out to carry out the interception mission, for example, they removed most of the cannons on the ship to reduce the weight of the ship. Anyway, the combat effectiveness of this ship cannot be counted on, and now one can only hope that they can get it from those blacks, and the information that there are no gunners on the "Constitution" today is reliable.

According to the pre-war conception, the British were responsible for holding down the French fleet in the harbor of New Orleans. Then two U.S. supercruisers dragged the French steamer, and the lightweighted version of the small gunboat had a chance to catch up with the USS Constitution and recapture it.

But it soon became clear to the Americans that there seemed to be something wrong with their assumptions. The first problem was that the steamship was too fast.

The wind was not strong on this day, so even the two super cruisers, the USS America and the USS Capitol, could only run at speeds of 8-9 knots. Although the nominal maximum speed of these two boats is as high as 13 knots, the top speed of the sailboat depends on the right time and place. So that maximum speed number, just look at it, most of the time, she can't run at this speed.

But the Free Trade was different, she could run at a top speed of 14 knots, and in most cases, she could really run at 14 knots.

The "Free Trade" first rushed straight towards the "America" that was running at the front. If neither side changes course, the two sides may stagger.

"America" first began to turn to the left to "Free Trade", trying to occupy the T-position. But just when it was about to successfully occupy the T position, the "Free Trade Number" suddenly made a sharp turn to the right. The shape of the "Free Trade", as well as her large anti-oscillating fins, should have made the steering performance of this boat relatively poor. In fact, in the state of sail, it is also true. At this point, however, she was in a state of full steam power, and the abundance of power made her less concerned about the loss of speed caused by the steering, so the agility of the steering far exceeded that of the sail battleship.

The result of these two turns is naturally that the two sides are staggered in a parallel manner. When the two sides staggered, they were only about 200 meters apart. In naval battles, in general, such a long distance, and again staggered, the firing window time is also limited. In such a situation, most of the artillery will not hit anything. But the "Free Trade" was in this staggering, and there was a salvo everywhere.

Only one of the nine shells hit. But this shell easily pierced the sturdy plank of the USS America. This armor-piercing anti-personnel bomb suddenly set off a rain of blood in the gun compartment of the "America", and five or six gunners were hit by the scattered fragments of the shell, and immediately saw God.

And because it was not sure that it would hit the opponent in such conditions, the "America" did not return fire.

The "Congress", which was originally following the "America", naturally did not get a chance to open fire.

After the "Free Trade" staggered past the "America", it continued to turn at a large angle, and the track she pulled out directly spread a large pie on the surface of the sea.

Such a steering is almost unthinkable for a sailboat with limited power and a lot of wind restrictions. So when Captain Weir, the captain of the USS Capitol, who was following the USS America, saw this big turn of the USS Free Trade, he was surprised and cried out, "Oh my God, she was able to turn like this!" ”

After completing the turn, the "Free Trade" occupied seven points in the tail of the two US ships, and then accelerated to catch up.

After seeing the "Free Trade" swing, both Colonel Matthews and Colonel Will no longer had hope of occupying the T position of the "Free Trade" by virtue of speed and maneuverability. At this time, they have to work hard not to let the "free trade" easily occupy their T position.

So the Americans began to adjust the formation, changing the formation of the two warships, one in front of the other, into two warships to open a distance, almost parallel horizontal formation.

The horizontal team is actually very inconvenient, whether it is turning or observing, it will be interfered by its own friendly ships. But it also has the advantage that when an enemy ship tries to pass through the bow of the first of our ships and occupy the t position, he will also send himself to the t position of the second enemy ship.

But today's "free trade" has no intention of playing anything with the Americans. Considering that the artillery fire of the Americans could not pose a real threat to the "Free Trade" at all, the most efficient way to operate is to sail parallel to them in order to provide a sustainable output of firepower for a long time.

So the "Free Trade" chased after him from behind. She first approached the "Reichstag", which was dragging a little behind, from the starboard side, and fired a volley at the "Reichstag" at a distance of 100 meters.

Because the two sides were on the same course at this time, this round of salvo fire was quite effective, and seven of the nine shells fired hit the target. And all seven shells pierced the side plates of the "Congress", and in the face of the new rear-loading rifled steel guns, the sturdy planks of the Americans' supercruisers, which they were proud of, were as fragile as eggshells.

The "Reichstag" also immediately returned fire. Although her cannon is not as good as the Free Trade, she has more cannons, so she has even more shells to hit her opponents.

But these shells, whether fired from a 24-pounder gun or an 18-pounder gun, were invariably bounced back by the "Free Trade" draped in steel plates. Not a single shell successfully penetrated the plank of the "Free Trade".

"Quick, quick, reload the cannonballs! We're getting closer, and this time we have to give them a good look! Colonel Will shouted. Since at a distance of about a hundred meters, their cannons could not penetrate the board of the opponent's ship, so continue to try to get closer.

"I don't believe it, their planks are still made of steel?"

But it's not easy to get close to the past, because you can move, and people will move. The "Parliament" began to turn to starboard, and the "Free Trade" also began to turn to the right, continuing to actively keep its distance from the "Congress". At the same time, another volley was struck.

Relying on the superiority of the breech guns in terms of rate of fire, the "Free Trade" fired three more volleys, while the "Congress" barely carried out an equally fruitless counterattack. And in this counterattack, the density of their firepower has dropped significantly - just a few salvos of the "Free Trade" caused so much damage to the gunners of the "Congress" that many cannons could not continue firing because there were no gunners.

At this time, the "America" began to approach the "Free Trade" from the left, and if the "Free Trade" did not give up the attack on the "Congress", it would fall into the "America" and the "Congress".

Farther away, the British commander, Lieutenant Colonel Vane, was watching the battle with a telescope. After watching a few rounds of firing between the two sides, he turned to the telescope in his hand and ordered, "Full sails, speed up, let's go back." ”

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