Ismael Zelany, a 72-year-old retired French naval colonel, participated in the blockade of the Prussian coast as a communications officer at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, but the chaotic command and lack of experience led to the bankruptcy of a blockade that should have lasted only two months, and a large number of officers, sailors and marines were transferred to support the losing army, and the exhausted and weakened fleet had to withdraw to the naval bases in the north, and the war that followed was ineffective. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info In another war more than a dozen years later, Zelani became the victor, and he participated in the Battle of Mawei in China as the deputy captain of the armored cruiser "Triumph", for which he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre de France of honor. In 1900, Zelani fought his last battle before retiring, and the joint expedition of Britain, France, Germany, and the United States and other eight countries to the Qing State, Zelani who stayed in the fleet regretted missing the opportunity to get rich overnight. After retiring from the army, he joined the French transatlantic shipping company and continued his maritime career.

When France declared war on Germany again, the aged Zelani could not wait for another call from his homeland, but he was not discouraged by this, but used his connections in the Navy to do something that surprised others: he turned the cargo ship "Nantes" into an armed merchant ship!

Threatened by German submarines, the British Navy sent a large number of older ships to defend important shipping lines in the Atlantic, and equipped some civilian ships with cannons. Before the war, France had already recovered from the abyss of the Franco-Prussian War, and the economy, industry, and population showed a momentum of rapid growth, and the French navy had maintained a relatively stable investment, but at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the development of the French navy focused on lightning strikers and submarines, and the technical level and number of large and medium-sized surface ships were far behind the British and German navies, which were engaged in a fierce shipbuilding competition. After the British Navy withdrew most of its ships from the Mediterranean, the main force of the French fleet was spent on the blockade of the Strait of Otranto and the Dardanelles, and there was no energy to escort its own ships, nor did it have the strong foundation of the British Navy to arm its own merchant ships in batches.

"Nantes" is an ocean-going freighter owned by the French transatlantic shipping company, with a total registered tonnage of 14,000 tons, it was launched in 1908, designed for a maximum speed of 17 knots, cruising speed of 12 knots, which is considered the fastest speed among large cargo ships of the same period. Zelani managed to get 2 138-mm single-mounted naval guns dismantled from decommissioned cruisers, and 4 37-mm Hatch Chase multi-barrel rapid-fire guns. With these weapons, it was more than enough to fight the German submarines that surfaced, after all, the German navy's submarine warfare was still relatively civilized during this period, and even for the merchant ships of the belligerent countries, they were usually captured and sunk first to protect the crew's right to survive when the danger was eliminated - but converting ordinary merchant ships into armed merchant ships meant losing the protection of the Convention of Neutrality at Sea.

After loading the Nantes with cannons, Zelani did not take the initiative to provoke the German submarines, but took on a difficult and dangerous task: to go to Chile to load saltpeter.

Prior to the widespread use of synthetic nitrates, natural saltpeter from Chile had a monopoly on the market and was an indispensable raw material for the production of agricultural fertilizers and munitions. The Nantes could transport nearly 10,000 tons of saltpeter at a time, which were made into tens of thousands of bullets, shells and explosives through the arsenal, and sent to the front-line soldiers to fight the German army. What's more, German merchant ships were still unable to penetrate the British blockade into the Atlantic, and therefore could not obtain Chilean saltpeter, and the Allies did not know that the Germans had obtained practical technology for the synthesis of nitrate, thus freeing themselves from absolute dependence on natural saltpeter. Long before the outbreak of the war, the Allies deliberately restricted German saltpeter imports, speculating that Germany's saltpeter reserves would last them for up to half a year, that is, as long as the French army held out for another three months, the Germans would be in a situation where they would run out of ammunition and food.

After the opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914, the voyage from France to Chile was shortened by several thousand nautical miles, but a round trip was still nearly 10,000 nautical miles. After sailing past the Azores, the Nantes was just over 1,000 nautical miles off the west coast of France, and it would take only four days to reach it at normal speed, but Zelani and his crew knew that the closer they were to home, the greater the potential threat. German submarines were no longer satisfied with blockading British waters, and since September, ships in the Bay of Biscay, adjacent to the English Channel, have been frequently attacked, and after "Blucher" and "Glaudenz" entered the Atlantic Ocean together, the entire North Atlantic has become a warning area for the Allied powers, and rumors about the entry of the German Pacific fleet into the Atlantic have added to the uneasiness of the captains and crews of the Allied countries.

"What a nice weather, what a quiet afternoon."

The only active soldier on board, the French Navy Ensign Sangaret, who had been ordered to train the crew in the use of artillery, sighed as he sipped hot coffee while looking at the sea view outside the porthole. When the Nantes returned to France, his assignment was over, and he could continue to sit back at the coastal fortifications of Toulon, or he might be transferred to the front line in Paris to assist the army, either way, the prospects seemed bleak.

"I think I heard something, thunder? Guns? Zelani closed his eyes and listened.

The lieutenant looked out to sea, but saw nothing, so he half-jokingly said, "Maybe someone is hungry." ”

Zelani opened his eyes and looked up at the lookout on the mast, where the two crew members were holding binoculars, keeping a watchful eye on the surface of the sea, and if anything unusual happened, they should be the first to notice it.

"When people get older, their senses of hearing, smell, and taste are declining, and there is really no way to do it." Zelani laughed at himself like this, but there was a faint uneasiness in his heart, because his instincts, which he trusted, told him that danger was approaching, and turning around and returning to the Azores was the only option.

"Let's ......" Zelani hesitated, and was about to express his concerns, when he heard the crew report from the lookout: "Column of smoke in the sea to the northeast!" ”

This strikingly similar scene had only recently appeared on the Portuguese-flagged ship Faro, and as time went on, the initial speculation of the French turned into panic, and Zelani hurriedly commanded the Nantes to turn around and run in the direction of Angra Sangra, but the speed advantage of the German ships was obvious, and the distance between the two sides quickly narrowed.

"It's firing!"

The lookout on the mast let out a hoarse scream, but that didn't help them change their current predicament. The powerful shells fell to the sea less than fifty meters from it, and the snow-white water column was higher than the top of the mast, and the cold water relentlessly washed its deck, making the exposed French crew shiver in the splash.

A moment later, the second German battleship also opened fire. Orange fireballs leaped in sight, cannonballs whizzed, and even before they exploded, their tremendous kinetic energy was able to make a large splash in the sea. Although the French crew had been prepared for an attack from the moment the German battleship was discovered, most of them still looked terrified. After all, they were sailors with no formal military training and not naval sailors, and they were never really ready to participate in a naval battle.

Zelani and Sangare are the only exceptions, but their individual qualities are not enough to change the huge gap in quality between the two sides.

The two German battleships opened fire in turn, large and small shells with dark red tail flames that were indistinguishable to the naked eye, and the impact point of the bullets was getting closer and closer to the "Nantes", as if the next round of fire would have a shell directly hit it. On the fore and aft decks of the ocean-going freighter, the French crew, who had undergone a short period of special training, waited nervously for the captain's order, which lowered the movable railings on the side of the ship and opened fire on the Germans.

Suddenly, the hull of the ship shuddered, and the explosion was deafening like never before.

Immediately after that, the cargo ship stalled sharply!

The situation on the two German armored cruisers was in stark contrast to the French on the opposite side. Although the officers were excited about the current war situation, they also handled their respective division of labor seriously and rigorously.

Count Spee and Colonel Schultz stood one step apart by the porthole, watching the one-sided shooting show through binoculars in their hands. Despite its sheer size, the cargo ship was different from a battleship in that it had only been hit by a single shell and the smoke was billowing and its speed was lost.

"It's going to be finished!" Schultz calmly said, "Send a signal for them to surrender!" ”

Count Speese gave an "um" in agreement.

After nearly 10 minutes of heavy fire, the guns of the two German armored cruisers suddenly stopped roaring, but the French on the "Nantes" did not get a respite, their ship was surrounded by smoke and flames, and even the bridge and mast were occasionally submerged in black smoke, which looked like a torch dipped in crude oil from a distance.

The cockpit, which had not been directly hit by the shells, was in shambles due to the intrusion of several large pieces of shrapnel, and the dead were scattered all over the place, and the wounded crew members were choked by the smoke from time to time and coughed violently. The only person standing here was the captain holding his right arm, blood pouring from his wound. However, what saddened him even more was the bleak sight of the 10,000-ton cargo ship, because the boiler compartment could no longer provide more power support for it, and its speed had slowed down to the point where the fish could easily surpass it

"Captain!" One of the surviving crew members staggered to the cockpit and pointed with his uninjured arm at the silent sea, "The Germans are signaling for us to surrender!" ”

"Surrender", the cruel word made Zerani's heart tighten. After a suffocating silence, he gritted his teeth and said, "Want us to surrender? To hell with them! Tell everyone, be prepared to shoot continuously, and when the German battleships get closer, we will let them see how good we are! ”

At this time, Second Lieutenant Sangaret was personally operating the gun on the foredeck, and this old naval gun had a limited range, power, and rate of fire, and only by seizing the most opportune moment could it surprise a powerful opponent.

(End of chapter)