The Colonial Cruiser was also quite weak in firepower, with only one 75mm gun in the bow and one in the stern. For confidentiality. Normally, this gun did not even use the tube retreat technique, but fortunately, the mission was relatively important, and in case there was an opportunity to perform the task of ground cover, the three colonial cruisers in this operation were equipped with the tube retreat 75 guns. This multiplied their firepower efficiency several times, but even so, because they could not move, and the warship itself was not armoured, the French had to ensure that they could get the first blow, otherwise the British would still have an overwhelming advantage as long as they cut into the bow direction and then with the broadside fire of their twenty guns.

In particular, the gun emplacements of colonial cruisers were not protected by turrets, only a defensive shield, and this defensive shield was only barely able to block rifle bullets (if it was too close to be unreliable), most of them could not block the grapeshot of British warships. Fortunately, the British should not have had time to discover themselves at this time, and Captain Edmundo felt that the first one or two shells would be decisive.

Edmundo was a gunner, and was a gunner for a while before becoming a ship captain. So this time he simply threw off his hat and came to the bow of the ship to operate the cannon in person.

The Gulf of Saldanha is in a westerly belt, and to its west is the vast Atlantic Ocean. Because of the influence of the westerly wind belt, westerly winds blow here all year round. But on the other hand, the temperature of the air on land drops faster than that of the ocean at night, which makes the air pressure on land significantly higher than that on the ocean, so in terms of microclimate, the air should flow from the land to the sea. As a result of the battle between the macroclimate and the microclimate, the Gulf of Saldanha is calm at night, as if it were a large lake.

Such sea conditions, of course, are ideal for shelling at longer distances. If it weren't for the lack of light at night, the gun scope could not be used, and only the naked eye could be used for distance measurement and aiming, Captain Edmundo would have been able to hit the enemy ship first. But now, whether the first shot can hit or not is still a matter of luck and faith.

If you can't hit the first shot, then the follow-up shot is very important. So Captain Edmundo chose a semi-armor-piercing incendiary tracer shell specially prepared for night battles. After the shell is fired, it can drag out a long band of light, which clearly shows the trajectory of the shell. Of course, this will expose itself, but considering that the sound of the cannon and the muzzle flame when the cannon is fired has inevitably exposed itself, plus a band of light, it is actually nothing.

After the shells were loaded, Captain Edmundo looked at the enemy ship again, but unfortunately the direction of the enemy ship was not very good, and he only had the bow gun to use. Otherwise, it will be more certain to use the bow gun and the stern gun to fire together.

Captain Edmundo adjusted his aim again, then prayed to God again, then closed one eye and waved his hand.

With a loud bang, a long ribbon of light flew straight out and shot towards the British sail cruiser "Lucky".

"Lucky" was clearly not lucky enough at this moment, and this shell hit it. But relatively speaking, in the midst of misfortune, he was lucky. The shell did not hit anything, but only in a small utility compartment in the bow of the ship. Of course, the shells ignited these debris, but the fire was not particularly large, and for the time being, it would not immediately have much impact on the combat effectiveness of the warship.

In contrast, if the shell was a little further back and into the gun bay, the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bomb with napalm fuel would not only burn up quickly (the gun bay was more spacious, better ventilated, and had more air), but it would also quickly produce a large amount of toxic smoke - it would be really fatal.

The shelling revealed the cruiser Tradewind in the dark, but the British spotted him, but it took a little time to take aim.

"Quick, reload!" Captain Edmundo's open eye, which was barely visible from the muzzle flame and the tracer of the cannonball, quickly opened the eye that could still see and shouted loudly.

A soldier pulled the handle, and a brass shell fell to the deck with a thud. Another soldier, who had already prepared, quickly stuffed the cannonball in his hand into the chamber and closed the bolt with his hand.

Captain Edmundo gently shook the handle with his right hand, fine-tuning the muzzle, then closed his still visible eye again and waved his hand.

A soldier jerked the hair rope, and another shell flew towards the Lucky.

The shell hit the gun bay of the "Lucky" and exploded in the gun bay, scattering dozens of tinder all over the gun bay. One of the fires fell into the powder keg that had been opened, and the fire burst into flames.

"Alright, it's done!" Edmundo shouted, "Where else is the boat?" ”

While Edmundo was shouting with joy, a string of fire flashed from the side of the "Lucky" - every cannon had already been loaded with shells when the British entered the bay. Now they've reacted and fought back.

The "Lucky" had 20 guns on one side, and since it was not known how well the French colonial cruisers were protected, these guns were made of spherical shells, which were the most armor-piercing for them. Because the gun compartment was already on fire, and the fire was still expanding, the British counterattack was relatively hasty, and the order of the salvo was not neat, and the hit rate certainly could not be compared with Edmundo's gun. However, because the distance between the two sides was only about 300 meters, and the British fired enough shells, many shells still hit the "Trade Wind".

Although the thin shell of the "Trade Wind" was metal, in terms of defensive capabilities, it was actually inferior to the British sail cruisers, so these iron balls easily pierced the hull of the "Trade Wind" and caused a lot of damage to the crew who were preparing to light a fire on the boiler.

However, the British shells were too backward, and the after-effects were completely incomparable with the tracer armor-piercing incendiary shells of the French. So although the French hit only two shells from the British, while the British hit more than a dozen shells from the French warship, the damage caused by the French shells was significantly greater in terms of the damage caused. The fire on the Lucky has now expanded significantly. Flames erupted from several cannon windows, illuminating the ship at once.

The rumbling of cannon fire also alarmed the other ships. The mixed passenger and cargo carrier "Atlantic Transporter" was the first to react. The Atlantic Transporter is a steam-powered ship, and of course she has already turned off the flames, and it will certainly be too late to rekindle the fire, but the new steam-powered ships often have one thing that the old sailboats don't have - arc searchlights.

The steam engine didn't start, and the small generators on the ship couldn't work, but there were batteries on board, and these batteries could still support the searchlights for a while.

Captain Aguero, a retired French naval officer who is now a captain of the Europa Shipping Alliance, is now employed by the government of the Dutch Republic to fly the Dutch flag, which is a bit like the French flag. He immediately sounded the alarm, called all the crew, and gave them the order to abandon ship.

The order was sudden, and it seemed to have been given a little earlier. However, the crew did not intend to question the captain's orders, anyway, they were not far from the coast, they could swim over, and besides, abandon the ship early, and be safe sooner. Isn't it?

The sailors put down the dinghy, and some of them were a little anxious, so they simply jumped into the boat with a barrel or something. Captain Aguero, however, came to the searchlight himself.

The searchlight came on, and the snow-white lamppost pierced the darkness like a sharp sword. Aguero knew where the ships on his side were anchored, and he carefully manipulated his searchlight to keep the beam of light away from several of the ships on his side, sweeping the dark sea in order to find another British warship still hidden in the darkness.

The pillar of light swept by, and a warship suddenly emerged from the darkness. This is another British warship, the sail cruiser "Miracle". At this time, she was about to go around from the other direction, and then surprise the Tradewind with her broadside guns at very close range.

But a pillar of light illuminated her, frustrating her plans. And because of the high brightness of the searchlight, the British troops on the "Miracle" could not see what kind of ship the "Atlantic Transporter" with the searchlight lit was at all. But even if you think about it with your heels, you can understand that at this time, it must be the warship of the French that can make such a move!

The British understood very well that the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs equipped with the French warships were almost the nemesis of wooden battleships, and the arson effect of this weapon was originally comparable to that of the original red-hot iron balls. Once one or two shots are taken, if you are not lucky enough, the entire warship may be accounted for here. So the "Miracle" immediately made a sharp turn, not only to get rid of the beam of light of the searchlight, but also to aim the side at the "Atlantic Transporter", although under the strong light, they could not see the outline of the "Atlantic Transporter" at all, and could not even accurately locate it. But they fired as quickly as they could, towards their estimated position.

Like the Lucky, the Miracle used solid shells, and because they couldn't see the enemy ship at all, they had a lower hit rate than the Lucky's salvo.

But the luck of the "Miracle" was better, although only a few shells hit, but one shell hit the coal tank and ignited the coal.

If there is still a crew on board, this small fire can be completely extinguished, the coal does not burn quickly, of course, once it does burn, it will be difficult to extinguish the fire. However, in order to reduce the casualties of the crew, Captain Aguero drove them all off the ship, so the damage management could not be done, but for the time being, the flames in the coal tank were not enough to destroy the ship.

While the "Miracle" was frantically firing at the "Atlantic Transporter", the other two French colonial cruisers also began to point their guns at the "Miracle".