"A total of 20 ships, 5 warships flying the long flag, 9 large Galen armed merchant ships, and 6 medium Galen armed merchant ships." Fraser on the mast roared.

"Captain, it's about eight nautical miles away, and it must be dark that I can't see clearly, so the two sides are so close. ”

Grover nodded and called Chen Shouxu over. "I need you to get on the mast."

Chen Shouxu froze, "No problem, Captain. ”

The captain took the second officer's telescope and handed it over, "When you go up, you will report the course of the enemy ship immediately." ”

Chen Shouxu was about to climb the side support rope, but was stopped by the boatswain, and Wicks handed over a rope, "Bring the rope, and tie yourself to the mast when you go up." Chen Shouxu was a little surprised, but he still took the rope, bit it with his mouth, and climbed onto the mast with his hands and feet.

The captain looked up at the direction of the wind, and the flag was still flying southwest. The speed of the boat is not fast, and the head-on sailing wind can be ignored for the time being.

"This damn northeast wind, Wilkinson, you take the helm yourself, Wicks get the cannon ready." A smile tugged at the corner of Grover's mouth, "Gentlemen, raise my flag." Let's have some fun with West Bank. ”

Although most of the crew members on the Blue Banshee were British, they were hired by the Netherlands because they had Dutch privateer licenses, so the Dutch tricolor fluttered on the backmast flagpole. Standing in Chen Shouxu's position, you can also see that the lower right part of the flag is also embroidered with a line of proverbs, "Blood and fire are of the same origin." Chen Shouxu vaguely felt that the flag and the proverbs had a sense of déjà vu, but he couldn't remember them for a while.

There was a burst of cheers on the deck, and the morale of the sailors was high. Even against a powerful Spanish fleet, no one on board would question the captain's decision, and they all had unwavering confidence in the captain.

"Lads, hang up the sails of the brave!"

Because of the position of the top sail on the ship, the sail must be carried out at a high mast, so the highest sail is usually called the brave sail. Sailing in the strait, the top sail is generally not hoisted, and the top sail will exacerbate the ship's head, and now it seems that the captain needs this brave sail to add speed to the Blue Banshee.

On the Blue Banshee, there is only the mainmast sail, and the lower truss of the mainsail is on the mast sleeve of the mainmast, and the upper truss is in the middle of the mainmast and the sail is retracted along the upper mast. The sailors on deck pulled the upper truss to the top with the halyard, and Fraser and the other two sailors, along the side sparks of the mainmast, continued to climb up until they reached the tripod of the upper mast and the top sail truss, stepped on the treadling rope along the top truss, bent down and loosened the rope that bound the top sail, and the top sail immediately swung into the wind. At this time, the other two sailors who climbed from the side sparks of the mainsail to the mast immediately tightly pulled the footlines of the topsail and tightened the tie on the bottomsail mulst.

Chen Shouxu watched them fiddle with the top sails from the mastboard, and marveled, on board, this is a skill that only the bravest and most seasoned sailors have.

Fraser and the others hung up the top sails cleanly and climbed down, drawing applause from the deck.

Chen Shouxu turned his gaze to the direction of the bow of the ship, and saw that the masts in the distance were like forests, the bulwarks were like cities, and the towering stern towers were like castles marching on the sea, and the tight formation was suffocating. All ships had Spanish flags on their backmasts, Roman double-headed eagles of the Habsburg crown on mainmasts, and several ships had bright red Burgundian crosses painted on their white sails. Flags of various colors, captains, flags, and flags embroidered with noble coats of arms flutter in the wind on the flagpoles of the foremast and the nose mast.

Although Chen Shouxu has memories from the great industrial civilization, he is also deeply shocked by the primitive and magnificent scene in front of him. In addition to the royal fleets or national fleets of the five countries of Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden, there is already the most powerful maritime power in the world, and the so-called ships and guns are no different.

Chen Shouxu kept a close eye on the course of the Spanish fleet, and the Blue Banshee was currently heading southwest and west, heading straight for the Spanish Treasure Fleet with a tailwind but against the current. Although the Spanish treasure fleet went with the current, it was against the wind and had to sail in the strait. At present, the actual course is close to the southeast, with less than 3 compass points from east to south, and the course is about 7 compass points angle to the wind direction. At its current course, the Blue Banshee was actually heading for the middle of the Spanish fleet, facing 400 broadside cannons.

The lead ship of the Spanish fleet, flying the commander's flag, began to maneuver violently, turning the rudder to the left, and the stern jib was reinstated to assist in the bow turning, and the foremast mainmast was also turned.

"The Spaniards are changing sides in the wind," Chen Shouxu shouted in the direction of the captain. "The enemy's lead ship has made a sharp left turn, and its current course is north-north-west." Sailing against the wind is so powerless, you have to sail close to the wind and keep doing zigzag.

As the pilot ship turned, the huge Spanish fleet began to follow suit. When the fleet sails in formation, there are two ways: following the lead ship and turning separately. Although the following steering is slow, it can better maintain the formation, and the faster steering of each can easily cause confusion in the formation.

Captain Grover smiled, "We are flying the Dutch flag, the Spaniards don't know if we are the lead ship of the Dutch fleet, if I am the commander of the Spanish fleet, I will definitely turn to the coast of Florida as soon as possible, the Dutch 10 years ago in the Battle of Matanzas Bay broke the courage of the Spaniards." ”

The captain was also excited, "The Spanish treasure fleet may be the most successful escort system in the world, in the past hundred years, only the Netherlands has successfully captured the Spanish treasure fleet once with more than 30 warships, including the gunboats of the battle line, they must be afraid of being attacked by the Dutch again!" In fact, the navigator said that he was conservative, if Chen Shouxu knew more about history, he would know that in the entire history of colonization of the New World, only the Dutch succeeded once in the Bay of Matanzas.

"Our ship turned left two compass points and headed for the turning point of the Spanish fleet." The captain took off his pipe and ordered quickly.

At this time, the blue banshee was rushing towards the Spanish fleet at full speed due to the side tailwind, and the pitch and roll of the ship became more violent because of the top sail, and only then did Chen Shouxu understand why the boatswain had let him tie himself to the mast.

The bow of the ship broke through the waves and drew a wonderful arc, and the Blue Banshee resembled a medieval knight charging at the enemy army alone, with countless hunting flags of the enemy in front of it and a golden light scattered by the dawn sun behind it.

Looking from the perspective of the commander of the Spanish fleet, a Dutch brig was making a suicidal charge at his own fleet. The ship also looked like it had only 10 guns in total, and it wouldn't have been more than 8 pounds. Any ship on his side has more one-sided naval guns than him, longer than him, and thicker than him.

The commander didn't care about the little Blue Banshee at all, he stared at the sea antenna in the distance, hopefully, hopefully, not to show up for the Dutch Grand Fleet.

To the fleet commander, the most valuable thing in this fleet was 1.2 million pounds worth of silver and countless New World cargo. The war with the Netherlands has been fought for 70 years, and there is far from an end in sight. the salaries of front-line soldiers; cannons made to order in Italian, Flanders and Portuguese arsenals; Timber ordered in Sweden and Russia was paid for in gold and silver brought back by the New World. In recent years, Spain's finances have been declared bankrupt five times, and every treasure fleet cannot afford to fail. If necessary, the fleet can be sacrificed altogether.

Therefore, in the face of the possible appearance of the main Dutch fleet, the fleet had only one option, to approach the coast of Florida as soon as possible. In this way, even if the fleet is defeated in the end, there will be a chance to transfer the gold and silver cargo to the shore.

1. Tribute to the Targaryens ^^