The speed of the "Free Trade" was already lower than that of the "Constitution". A turn was made by the active one, which further reduced the speed. The "Constitution" skillfully cut a radius, smoothly cut into the direction of the "Free Trade" at six o'clock, and then chased it directly.

Soon the distance between the two sides was closer to the range of the shells. The Americans first fired at the "Free Trade" with chain shells from the bow gun, trying to break her sails.

When Zola saw the U.S. ship cut into his six o'clock direction, he knew that a battle was inevitable. He first ordered the non-combatants to leave the deck immediately. Then a group of sailors dragged down Victor, who was bent on watching the excitement.

Then the "Free Trade" began to turn again. Like other warships of this era, the "Free Trade" was not equipped with a gun in the tail. Therefore, the "Free Trade" should interfere with the opponent's shooting by turning and let the opponent rush to the front, so as to form a situation of gunfire on the side.

Of course, the Constitution can also be kept in the 6 o'clock direction of the "Free Trade" by constantly turning. But this constant turning, too, interferes with their own shooting, making it a sharp decrease in the effectiveness of shooting. If this momentum is maintained, this battle will not be fought for a day.

And the "Free Trade" is a steamship, and his steam engine is being pressurized by a fire. Although the process is slow, it is not so slow. Once the steam engine of the "Free Trade" was in operation, the whole battle could be turned around.

The "Constitution" is now faster than the "Free Trade", so the best thing for her to do is to catch up while there is still an advantage in speed, grab the T position, and strike the "Free Trade" a few more rounds. Defeat the "Free Trade" before the advantages of the steam engine are brought into play.

At the beginning, the "Equality" used the tactic of grabbing the T in the battle with the British steamship, and it was from the tail of the enemy ship. Because the stern of the enemy ship is without cannons. But one of the prerequisites for the "Equality" to be able to play like this in that battle was that the speed difference between the two sides was very large.

Because if it weren't for the very large speed gap between the two sides, it would be easy to give up the position of the T head to others by grabbing this position. The speed gap between the USS Constitution and the USS Free Trade was not so large that the USS Constitution could only attempt to cross its course from the front of the USS Free Trade to form a T-head.

As a "super cruiser", the "Constitution" had 23 cannons on one side, including 10 12-pounder guns on the upper deck and 13 24-pounder guns on the lower deck. With such a heavy firepower, if a volley came up from the T-head position, Captain Hull felt that he would definitely be able to inflict a heavy blow on his opponent.

The "Constitution" pursued from the starboard side of the "Free Trade", tried to overtake the "Free Trade" from a distance of about 100 meters to the starboard side, and then turned sharply to the left, cut into the course of the "Free Trade", and dealt a hard blow to the French with a volley from the port side.

Of course, it was a slightly risky move to pass from a distance of 100 meters on the starboard side of the "Free Trade", and at a distance of 100 meters, the enemy ships could have opened fire on the "Constitution" with their broadside guns. But this is also one of the purposes of Captain Hull, there are wind and waves at sea, the ships are shaking, so the cannons are also shaking, during naval battles, shells flying around are basically the characteristics of this era, the distance between the two warships is more than seventy or eighty meters, the hit rate of the cannonballs will be touchingly low, all the time, the artillery battle between the two warships will be from a distance of two or three hundred meters all the way down twenty or thirty meters. Close-to-face shelling followed by broadside battles have occurred from time to time.

If the French had fired a salvo from a distance of 100 meters, some shells might have hit the Constitution, but Captain Hull felt that his battleship should be able to withstand the fire of the enemy ships at this distance.

Although the "Constitution" is a "cruiser", its defense level is only that of a battleship. In the original history, in the Second War of the United States and Great Britain, in a one-on-one battle with a British cruiser, the "Constitution" was hit by more than 100 shells, but not a single shell penetrated the plank of the "Constitution".

Add to that the fact that the steamships have fewer gun emplacements, so their salvos pose less of a threat. If the French had fired at a distance of 100 meters, Hull felt that the damage they could inflict on the Constitution would have been very limited. And the reloading of artillery was very slow. If this volley of the French did not achieve much effect, it would mean that for a long time he was equivalent to being unarmed. At this time, the "Constitution" can directly turn the rudder, stick it up, and give the French a salvo at a very close distance, so that they cry and cry for their mother.

The "Constitution" appeared at a distance of more than 100 meters on the starboard side. All the gun doors on the starboard side of the "Free Trade" have been opened, and all nine cannons are ready for fire.

The muzzle velocity of the shells fired from the steel rifled guns of the "Free Trade" was much higher than that of ordinary cannons, its effective range was longer, and it was less affected by swaying. In addition, the "Free Trade" itself is large enough, and in order to exert its range and reduce the sway, the "Free Trade" is equipped with a large pair of anti-swing fins. This allows the Free Trade to sway less than its equivalent vessels, and has a longer sway period. All these measures made the long-range shooting accuracy of the "Free Trade" significantly superior to that of other warships of this era.

Of course, no measure will have only advantages and no side effects. The large anti-swing fins make the "Free Trade" a little less steerable. In the state of relying on steam power to sail, because of the power advantage brought by the steam engine and propeller, the weakness of this steering is not obvious, (the ability to sail without relying on the wind direction, so that she naturally has a flexibility that cannot be matched by sailboats) But when the steam engine is turned off and the sail is only relied on sails, the steering of the "Free Trade" is indeed a little sluggish. This is a big reason why the USS Constitution was able to occupy what it considered to be the dominant position so quickly.

The order to shoot had already been given, and nine cannons on the starboard side were fired one after another.

Although the gunners on the "Free Trade" were not yet finished getting acquainted with the new cannon in their hands. But these gunners are actually experienced veteran gunners. The so-called not yet familiar with the cannon in their hands means that they have not yet been able to fully display the performance of this new cannon. For example, according to the original setting, the cannon in their hands should have a fairly high hit rate at a distance of 400 meters under normal sea conditions. But the gunners can't do this for the time being.

However, at the distance of 100 meters, they can still guarantee a fairly high hit rate.

In the first salvo, nine shells hit seven.

When he saw the "Free Trade" open the cannon door, Captain Hull actually felt very relieved. He knew that the number of cannons that the steam battleship could be equipped with would be much smaller for various reasons, but such a large ship had only nine guns on one side, which was really less than Hull expected.

"I knew earlier, what else did I rob, why don't you just paste it?" Captain Hull even had such thoughts popping into his head.

But there was a flash of fire, and then Hull felt a shake under his feet.

"These guys are really accurate! , it seems that they are underestimated a little. ”

With this shot, several other cannons on the "Free Trade" also fired one after another, and the deck under Hull's feet also continued to vibrate.

"Their hit rate is pretty high!" Hull thought while shouting "Report the loss!" down to the bottom. ”

Hull had expected to hear something like this: "It's all right! No breakdown! ”

However, there was no immediate response from below, and after a while, a voice came "The ship's board has been punctured, and the casualties are ......"

The armor-piercing projectiles fired from the 110 mm rifled guns on the "Free Trade" easily pierced the oak planks of the "Constitution" more than seventy centimeters thick, and in the process, transferred huge amounts of energy to the oak planks. As the shells passed through the oak planks, the inside of the gun compartment exploded, sending bars and debris flying everywhere and stabbing like knives into the bodies of the gunners next to them......

Some of the shells that had pierced the thick plank hit the other side of the board almost without slowing down, and then made a hole in the other side and flew out.

There was also a cannonball, which lost its stability after passing through the plank, and landed on the opposite board, then broke into several pieces and bounced back, knocking down several more people.

But the most fatal thing was this shell, which, after penetrating the plank, directly hit a 24-pounder copper cannon placed on the other side of the plank.

The shells smashed into pieces on the bronze cannon, and the scattered fragments killed many of the gunners in the vicinity. The cannon itself jumped to its feet at the bombardment, and tore the chain that held it in place, and the broken chain swept across like a whip, breaking the waist of a gunner who could not escape in two.

The jumping cannon crashed into another cannon, knocking it to the ground and crushing two more gunners.

After a round of shelling, there was a mess in the lower gun compartment of the "Constitution", as if a tornado had just raged here.

After a general understanding of the losses, Captain Hull realized that he had underestimated the French, their accuracy of fire, and the power of the cannons they were equipped with, far beyond his expectations. But he still gave the order very decisively

"The left rudder is full! Put it on it, stick it to their faces, and flatten them! ”

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