Whether they could see it or not, all the officers and men on both sides of the battlefield unconsciously looked in the direction where the loud noise came from, where there should have been a cruiser fleeing at high speed in smoke, but at this time, only large and small water columns could be seen......

As the water column receded, the sea quickly returned to calm, as if the shock had never happened at all, well, more accurately, as if the cruiser Blake had never existed at all......

"Damn, why did you explode again?" Vice Admiral Seymour waved his hand viciously and scolded, his judgment was very accurate, but he could not think of a cause that could stand up to scrutiny as to why such a great explosion suddenly occurred on the cruiser Blake, which was already about to escape from the battlefield. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Due to the precedent before, Vice Admiral Seymour's first thought was that the cruiser Blake did not have time to close the fire door, but immediately realized that this was impossible, if the fire door had not been closed, the Blake would have been blown up into the sky a long time ago, and it was impossible to wait until now.

"Maybe someone in the ammunition depot violated safety protocols and caused the accident?" This possibility was also quickly denied by Vice Admiral Seymour, who should have been more cautious than usual in the terrible situation of the warship being severely damaged and the deck on fire, and with the quality of the personnel of the British Royal Navy, although it cannot be said that such a low-level mistake is completely impossible, but the probability is absolutely minimal.

Vice Admiral Seymour really couldn't think of a convincing reason, and finally had to give up, after all, this naval battle was still going on, and it would be too dereliction of duty to be distracted for a long time.

In fact, not only Seymour did not expect it, but also none of the nearly 10,000 Chinese and British naval officers and sailors who participated in this naval battle could have imagined that even after the end of this war, the sudden explosion of the cruiser Blake was still an unsolved mystery that was debated endlessly in the world's naval circles.

It was not until many years later, after a British cruiser suddenly and inexplicably exploded during a foreign visit and sank on the spot, that some people linked it to the inexplicable sudden death of a warship in the naval battle in the Indian Ocean, prompting the British Admiralty to send people to carefully study the wreckage salvaged from the harbor and finally solve this cross-century mystery......

It turned out that the problem was the smokeless gunpowder used by the British Navy, as a new type of propellant and ammunition, although smokeless powder had the great advantage of less smoke and no residue, for a long time, the smokeless powder formula used by most countries had some serious flaws (before 1900, only German smokeless gunpowder was relatively perfect, and this advantage was maintained until the end of World War I). ）。 Taking the smokeless medicine used by the British army as an example, it is good in other aspects, but the ignition point is low, and at the same time, the smokeless medicine itself is easy to oxidize and heat. It doesn't matter in normal times, because the British summer is not very hot, but the unlucky cruiser's visit abroad coincided with a rare scorching heat, which, combined with the heat generated by the oxidation of the smokeless powder itself, caused the smokeless propellant pack stored in the ammunition depot to spontaneously ignite and catch fire, and then, there was no more......

Spontaneous combustion can be triggered just by hot weather, not to mention the cruiser USS Blake being scorched by fire for a long time after the coal bunker fired? In particular, the thermal conductivity of steel is relatively strong, and even if there is a layer of dome armor in the middle, it is difficult to keep the cabin below cool when many places on it have been burned to the softening and deformation of the steel plates. In addition, the fire in the coal bunker cannot be extinguished, and the fuel is extremely sufficient, and it is no wonder that there is no accident if it is grilled for a long time......

Originally, if the captain of the cruiser Blake had ordered the ammunition depot to be poured water to cool down, like the other critical compartments, perhaps this catastrophe could have been avoided; However, considering that smokeless gunpowder dissolves after being watered, and at the same time can corrode the bulkheads of the ammunition depot, equipment and shells stored in it, and the steam produced is also quite toxic to the human body, and the cost is quite large, few people can make up their minds to pay such a big price without knowing in advance that smokeless powder has serious safety risks.

Thus, the cruiser Blake was unexpectedly finished, and although the sudden incident did not have a direct impact on the tide of battle because it was already far from the battlefield, the morale of both sides inevitably changed.

The navy was originally a somewhat superstitious branch of the army, and this era of science and technology was not yet developed in later generations, especially so. When the British officers and men saw that they had sunk a large cruiser for no apparent reason, many of them felt powerless and hopeless that they had been abandoned by God, while the Chinese side felt that they were blessed by the "Mandate of Heaven" and were full of confidence.

Relatively speaking, because most of the gunners on the Chinese side are biochemical soldiers, their psychological state is very stable, and the increase in the hit rate of the shelling is not too large; But the situation on the British side is different, the hit rate is not good, and now that I am weak, it will be even more difficult to hit......

The lethality of solid shells is too small, unless a large number of hits below the waterline cause water in many places of the target, exceed the limit of its damage management capacity, or unbiasedly hit key equipment such as ammunition and boilers, in order to severely damage or even sink an enemy ship. And in either case, at least a few dozen hits are required (it must also be large-caliber, no matter how many secondary guns hit, it will have a big impact, not to mention that the 152mm secondary guns of Sovereign-class battleships are impossible to penetrate the main armor belt of the Haitian-class patrol in any case, so it is even more useless. With the further decline in the hit rate of the British side and the slow rate of fire of the main guns of the Sovereign-class battleships at the earliest, it would take at least more than an hour to fire.

It took less than a quarter of an hour for the Brave and the Sunny to catch up and sink the fleeing cruiser Hawk. It is also worth mentioning that the two Chinese warships also opened up the distance between them and the six British capital ships in the pursuit (the captain of the Hawk did not think of turning around and running towards the capital ships, but this would have been quickly sunk by getting close to the two Chinese warships, and the Chinese warships could still easily accelerate away). This means that the Chaoyong and Yangwei can take advantage of their main guns to add scopes and more exquisite gunnonry skills to fight enemy ships from a long distance......

Less than an hour had passed since the beginning of the battle, the British expeditionary fleet had completely lost all hope of victory, and only one of the cruisers had been reduced to a burden, and even the six battleships might not all sail back to Bombay safely...... (To be continued.) )