It was a medium-sized three-masted schooner, the Dutch Frut type, which could also be called a flute-type ship. It was a Dutch design with a merchant ship with a noticeable inward camber on the waterline. The top deck is narrow, and the cargo compartment in the middle of the ship is large. The sail line of this kind of ship is a relatively simple type among the three-masted ships, and the inward camber makes his sailing performance very poor, the turning radius is large, and the roll is also very violent. When fully loaded, it is impossible to maneuver to change sides to the wind.

The Dutch designed the ship to look like this strange thing, also because many European ports at that time charged berth fees according to the area of the top deck, and the top deck area of this inward inclined ship type was small. And because the sails were simple and the manpower required was relatively small, the cost of the flute ship was halved compared with that of Galen, which led European countries to imitate this type of merchant ship.

Chen Shouxu looked up at the mast, the flag showed that the wind direction was east-northeast, and the sail slowly drifted upwind of the flute with the Tempest, between Barbados and the flute. The distance between the two ships is only 200 meters. The flute ship has lowered the mainsails of each mast.

The sailors all crouched behind the bulwark, staring at the big fish that were already approaching.

But to everyone's surprise, the merchant ship actually opened the gun door and launched the broadside cannon.

Rhaegar stood beside Chen Shouxu and counted, "Captain, they actually want to eat black. The flute ship has 5 guns on a single side, and I just saw that there are more than this number of gun windows on the side of the gunwale. ”

"It's normal that merchant ships don't have all gun emplacements full." Chen Shouxu clapped his hands and said, "We can't wait any longer." They leaned over against the wind. Attention everyone, combat positions! Extinguish the fireworks and raise the mainsail. ”

The sailors rushed to their respective posts according to the division of labor, threw away the chimneys and pulled up the main girder. The two sailors hurried up the stern and fastened their sail halyards.

"Raise the flag, open the gun door. We went around to his downwind. ”

The Tempest, with its mainsail open, quickly regained its maneuverability, and although it was not fast, it was much more agile than a flute.

Before the Flute could complete its next manoeuvre, the Tempest sailed to the side of the ship where it had not opened its gun door. Standing at the bow of the ship, the flute boat hurriedly turned the sailors to the unprepared side, loaded the gunpowder and shells, and rolled out the cannons.

By this time, the Tempest had slowed down from an area of 50 meters from the Flute and was downwind of the enemy ship. One of the first cannons on the flute ship was fired, probably because the gunners were too nervous to grasp the rhythm of the ship's rolling, and they were able to hit the cannonballs over the head of the Tempest upwind.

Chen Shouxu calmly glanced at his sailors, all of whom were veterans who were accustomed to bloody artillery battles. The strikers of both gun crews were in a steady position, and there was not a trace of panic on board.

"Launch the chain bomb."

The two cannons fired almost at the same time, and Chen Shouxu could feel the ship's hull shake backwards.

In the downwind position, taking advantage of the incoming wind, he raised the muzzle of the gun along with the hull, and after the chain was ejected, it flew to the mast of the flute-shaped ship with a roar. It had just let go of the mainsail, and the kinetic energy of the 4-pounder gun could hardly tear the mast apart, but it could tear the canvas into mop strips.

Seeing that the lower sails of the foremast and midmast of the flute-shaped ship were torn apart, Chen Shouxu ordered loudly, "Load, let's play another round." ”

Adhering to the excellent standard of shooting of the English Navy, the gunners from the Banshee were among the best in all of Europe.

The Tempest's first hit took the flute's shelling out of rhythm, and the cannons fired indiscriminately, hitting the Tempest's board twice. Because of the proximity, one of the heavier shells pierced the bow deck of the Tempest.

"Rhaeggar, you take three people down to plug the leak." Chen Shouxuan didn't care, it was just a small 6-pound cannonball, it didn't matter.

He still looked at the gunners, and the gunners seemed to have not heard the shelling of the enemy ship, and completed the clearing, loading, and reset according to the textbook-like process.

Or two chain bullets, and a few more pieces of canvas were torn.

After this round of shelling, the two ships staggered by. In the same time window, the Tempest fired two salvos, and the enemy ships could only hit once.

The four sails of the flute boat have been torn into strips of cloth, and the ability to eat the wind is greatly reduced. Of course, as a three-masted ship, he had seven sails that were responsible for holding the sailing wind, and two sides that were spinnakers for the air rudders. Now it has not lost its ability to sail, but it is just a little more cumbersome than before.

Chen Shouxu sneered and said to the gunners, "Brothers, I have seen it today, someone has eaten black and blackened the head of the Bahamian pirates." Gotta use cannonballs to make them remember for a long time. Knock out his back spinnaker first. ”

In order to load more cargo, the belly of the flute ship was designed to be large, but it was not equipped with a stern gun. At this moment, the bare stern of the ship was completely exposed in front of the gun muzzle of the Tempest.

In order to further defeat the mobility of the enemy ship, Chen Shouxu's first choice was to continue to destroy the sail of the flute boat with chain bullets. The tail jib, as an important tool to assist the rudder, knocks off the spinnaker, which will further slow down its downward steer downwind.

With a tailwind, the Tempest couldn't outrun the three-masted ship, so Chen Shouxuan had to destroy his sail as much as possible before that.

The four guns of the Tempest, the amount of one delivery was still too small, and Chen Shouxu watched as he turned twice before completely destroying the rear mast. After this fight, you must add two more cannons to the Tempest.

The men of the flute-shaped ship were removing the spare sails from the cargo hold, busy replacing the previously damaged foremast mid-mast sails. Hurry up.

"Swap for solid bullets and hit his stern."

The flute was now in a state of complete assault, and the destruction of the sail rig further deteriorated the already poor maneuverability. The gunners on the Storm entered a state of distraction, playing rhythm and feeling. The cross sails had too much advantage in the shift turn, and at each time the gunners fired two volleys, then the ships turned around and fired from side to side, and the solid shells were fired round by round towards the stern of the flute.

In order to save costs, merchant ships do not use high-quality hardwoods such as oak and teak, and most of them use inferior materials such as pine and cypress. Under the constant shelling of the Tempest, the stern of the Flute had been pierced several times.

"in again!" The sailors have already entered a state of cheering.

Chen Shouxu didn't know if the captain of the flute-shaped ship would regret it, but he could see through the smashed stern deck that the transverse bulkhead in the merchant ship's hull had been broken with the repeated penetration of the cannonballs. Every time the Tempest fired a cannonball into the flute, it could bounce from stern to bow, tearing apart everything that stood in its way.

There was a loud "bang", and the shell just hit a gun carriage with a side gun, making a tooth-sour sound, knocking the gun car away from the gun position. The gun carriage, which had lost its restraints, moved inside the hull with the shaking of the hull, running over the gunner's calf, causing more terrible damage than a cannonball.

The gunners of the merchant ships left their positions in terror and fled towards the main deck.

By this time, the flute had already turned downwind, but the stern was damaged and the hull was flooded, and the broken sails that had not been fully replaced made it difficult for it to accelerate.

To make matters worse, as the Tempest continued to shell, the rudder of the Flute was also broken.

The flute lowered all its sails and raised the white flag.

The shelling stopped, and the smoke mixed with sweat stained everyone's faces. The sailors of the Storm raised what they had at hand, some raised their swords, some raised the breeching rods of their guns, others raised their arquebuses. Everyone cheered loudly in celebration of the Tempest's victory in the first naval battle.

It was as if they had not seen the flag of St. George flying on the flute.