It was a cruiser with two masts and a foremast in the middle and fore, and two towering chimneys in the rear - apparently a steam-powered ship. Its name is "Equality".

Because there is no need to arrange the paddle wheel. As a result, the ship still retains a full gun deck, but compared to a complete sail ship of comparable tonnage, it lacks a gun deck because the power compartment and coal tank occupy space. Moreover, compared with ordinary warships, it is still the lower gun deck that is squeezed out, and generally speaking, for the sake of center of gravity and stability, heavy artillery can only be installed on the bottom gun deck, so in terms of firepower alone, the firepower of this kind of warship is much weaker than that of the same sail cruiser.

This cruiser had only 16 12-pounder guns, 8 on the port side and 8 on the port side. Such firepower is almost only at the level of armed merchant ships.

But if you compare it with the steam frigates of the British, its firepower is quite powerful. The British steam frigates had a total of only five guns, one 24-pounder gun in the bow and two 12-pounder guns on each side. Combined with the faster speed and better sea-state navigation capabilities brought by the propellers, this ship can be said to be the killer of the British steam frigate.

In terms of top speed, although this boat is not faster than the clipper in terms of top speed, its maximum speed can run at any time, and the clipper is not necessarily. So the boat can go faster than the clipper most of the time.

The crew of this black ship was transferred from the "Fool" on the Seine. The reason for this is that it can quickly form a combat force and immediately put it into the waters near Ireland to change the situation at sea.

A month later, the ship completed various trainings and basically formed combat effectiveness. So the ship, under the command of the captain of the ship, Major Marten, left the Mediterranean and, relying on its high speed, broke through the interception of the British Navy in Gibraltar and sailed into the Atlantic. After a short rest in the port of Le Havre, the whole ship left Le Havre on a stormy night and sailed into the middle of the sea.

In order to save fuel, the "Equality" sailed only on sails most of the time, and only when it spotted a British naval warship approaching, it pressurized the boiler and used steam power to get rid of the British battleship. After several days of sailing, the Equality approached the waters near Ireland.

"Equality" unfurled all its sails and turned to sail against the wind, and at the same time in the stern a long centipede-shaped kite was flown up. A small man was hung on a seat under this kite, rising to a height of about two hundred meters, and then looking around with a telescope. Soon, he saw a British-flagged clipper on the sea antenna.

The little man pulled a small flag from his waist and waved it downward.

The men below began to pass through a winch, retracting the ropes, while the boiler began to fire and pressurize. Two tall chimneys began to billowing black smoke.

Soon, the kite was put away. The little man also stepped onto the deck again. Flying off in a kite is a dangerous thing to do, so he can get twice as much as the average lookout.

The little lookout reported what he had seen to Captain Marten, who was standing aside, and the Equality began to turn and pick up speed.

As the pressure on the boiler gradually increased, the speed of the "Equality" began to increase.

"Put the sails away." Major Marten ordered.

Now that the speed of the ship is too high, the sails can no longer help, or even become a hindrance. The "Equality" continued to pick up speed, and soon exceeded ten knots. Soon after, the boat that the little man had just seen on the kite came into view of Major Marten.

At this time, the British on the clipper "Resolute" had actually noticed the "Equality" for a long time. This is also natural, the thick black smoke from the "Equality" rises so high, how can you not see it? The British on the "Resolute" knew only by a glance that it was a steamship.

However, they only thought that it was a British steamship, because they didn't know that there were steamships in other countries besides the United Kingdom, and they didn't expect to encounter a steamship that did not belong to the United Kingdom in this area. So although they noticed that the ship was approaching them at high speed, they did not make any preparations for defense. Because it seemed to them that it must have been the lookout post on that ship that did not see the flag they were flying, and when they got closer, they naturally knew that they were mistaken.

However, when the black steamship approached, they found that it was completely different from the English steamship they were familiar with—there were no paddle wheels on either side of the hull. Then they spotted something that made their jaws drop—a tricolor was rising from the ship's mast.

"It's ...... This is the ship of the French? How is this possible? Captain William was almost dumbfounded, "Quick, unfurl all the sails!" ”

William shouted as he pounced on the steering wheel and changed course.

But the move was too late, the two ships were already very close, and although the wind at sea was quite ideal, the acceleration of the "Resolute" took time. And the steamship had finished accelerating, and it was close enough.

The "Equality" quickly approached, approached a place just over 100 meters away from the target, sailed side by side with the "Resolute", and at the same time began to fire at the "Resolute" with chain bullets.

Chain bullets are commonly used weapons in naval warfare in this era, and their main role is to destroy the opponent's sails and make the opponent lose the ability to maneuver.

Because of the shaking of the ship, even at a distance of more than a hundred meters, the accuracy of the hit of shells fired from a cannon without stabilizing equipment was very problematic a lot. Fortunately, the target of the sail is relatively large and easy to hit. And every chain bullet that hits the sail tears off a large piece of canvas. Soon the sails of the "Resolute" became full of holes.

The power of the sails, especially the sails of clippers, is mainly based on the Bernoulli principle. This is caused by the pressure difference between the airflow on both sides of the sail. When the sail is full of holes, these holes destroy the pressure difference between the two sides, causing the sail to gain a significant amount of power.

After several rounds of shelling, the speed of the "Resolute" began to slow down and Captain William knew that his ship could not escape.

"Put away the sails, we surrender." Captain William ordered.

The clippers had no cannons, and the range of Greek fire could not reach the enemy, and the enemy was far above him in terms of speed and firepower, so what way out could he have except surrender?

The "Resolute" hoisted the flag of surrender, put away the broken sails, and dropped the anchor. The whole boat floated on the surface of the sea like a dead fish.

"Send a small boat over and order them to get on the lifeboat." Major Marten ordered.

So a few French sailors boarded the "Resolute" in small boats and conveyed the order to the captain of the "Resolute".

"We don't have room on our ship to hold our captives, and we don't have supplies for you. So, you have to get into your own lifeboat and bring as much water and food as you can. Then we will sink the ship. Well, you have twenty minutes left, hurry up, get away as soon as possible, and pray to God. A leading French lieutenant said to William.

There is not much water and food that cannot be carried on the lifeboat anyway. And without the ability to return on their own, the British could only float at sea, hoping to meet another ship that could rescue them. But whether you can meet it or not, it really depends on God's blessing.

But the British on the "Resolute" did not dare to disobey the orders of the French. By this time, the French had already behaved much more gentlemanly than they had with those French ships.

So within the allotted time, all the British got into the lifeboats, and rowed the lifeboats away from the "Resolute" with all their might. Then a group of French soldiers entered the hold of the Resolute, removed some of the things on the Resolute that were still useful to the French, and then placed a time bomb on the bottom of the cabin, and rowed away from the Resolute.

Ten minutes later, with an explosion, a large hole was blown into the bottom of the ship, and the ship slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

This was only the first prey of the Equality, and in the week that followed, the Equality sent fourteen British ships equally under the bottom of the sea in one fell swoop, and in the craziest of days, it sank four British clippers in one fell swoop.

A week later, the Equality returned to Le Havre after it had run out of supplies, ending its slaughter of the British clipper fleet off the coast of Ireland. Two days after it left, a lifeboat full of British sailors was spotted by a British clippers, and the British realized that the reason why several ships had not returned to port as planned during this time was because of such a black killer.

The British gave the black "Equality" the nickname "Orcas" and immediately devised a plan to encircle and annihilate it, codenamed "Whaling Ship". Prepare to concentrate a number of "steam frigates" to encircle and destroy this French ship.

In the port of Le Havre, the Equality spent a week overhauling the steam engine and other systems, replenishing supplies and weapons, and then left the port again and sailed for the waters off Ireland. Before departure, the captain, Major Marten, received a valuable Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. And in front of him, more than a dozen urgently mobilized British steam frigates were waiting with their nets open.

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