With excellent materials, excellent design, and the Germans' consistently sophisticated waterproof design of subdivided compartments, the "Europa" has endured 16 years of ups and downs since its construction, and it is still quite outstanding among cruise ships of its class, so that the French did not hesitate to add the name of this giant ship to the ambition of reviving their own shipping industry and regaining dominance on the European continent. However, no matter how good the civilian ships are, they cannot get rid of the congenital constraints of civilian ships, they pursue the ratio of safety, comfort, speed and cost, and it is impossible to configure waterline armor and mine-proof compartments like warships, so they lack the ability to resist torpedoes and mines, which are powerful weapons of war. Therefore, when a 50,000-ton supership meets a torpedo weighing no more than two tons, even if it is just one, the prelude to the disaster has begun.

"Quick! Order to close the watertight door! Close all watertight doors! ”

In the upper cockpit of the "Europa", which was to be renamed the "Lorraine", such a rapid shout did not come from the mouth of the French captain, and the two French political axe officials of different sizes did not forget to exercise their special powers in panic, and they pointed fingers here, making the already tense and hectic cockpit even more chaotic. In their minds, although this ocean-going cruise ship with an original cost of 30 million US dollars is not as good as the treasure of France in the entire thirties - the 80,000-ton super cruise ship "Normandy", but after the baptism of World War II, France's economic and industrial strength has shrunk significantly, and it may be difficult to build such a huge ship within ten years, and the "Normandy" detained by the United States during the war was seriously damaged by fire when it was berthed in New York Harbor in 1942 and can no longer be used. During such a long period of transition, the German-built giant mail ships were of great economic and political importance.

Under the pressure of these two officers accompanying the ship, the French captain with a grim expression grabbed the internal contact number: "Let the bilge report the damage, and report the damage as soon as possible!" For the time being, the waterproof partitions in the engine room and boiler room are closed...... That's right, put down the watertight door, evacuate the injured for the time being, and the rest continue to stick to their posts! ”

The United States accounted for more than half of the people accompanying the ship, both staff and passengers. At this time, in addition to the navigator, there was also an American ship engineer present in the cockpit. Although the cruise ship was not built by an American shipyard, after it was captured by the United States and converted into a troop carrier, it underwent a relatively comprehensive overhaul in New York after its first voyage. Seeing that the explosion had occurred at the stern of the ship's hull, the American engineer with short haircut and small-rimmed glasses hurried back from the observation terrace on the right side of the cockpit, and he muttered something in American language, which was then relayed to the French captain by a French interpreter. Probably because the engineer used some technical terms, and the French found a translator who did not have any knowledge of ship technology, the original meaning actually changed here in the subjective understanding, "must slow down and stop loss" became "do not slow down to stop loss", and "issue a safety alert" also became "it should be safe". ”

Ship engineers are experts, experienced captains are not vegetarians, and the French captain did not fully heed the advice of the chief engineer on the American side. With other torpedo trails still looming on the surface of the sea and the ship could be damaged at any time, he seemed to give priority to avoiding subsequent strikes, so he ordered the crew to pay close attention to the torpedo tracks on the surface of the sea while ordering a full turn to the right.

At this moment, the panicked shouts from the deck and the nearby cabins were endless, and the French first mate was already sweating like rain. The American crew standing by heard the words of their chief engineer and saw that the first mate was doing something diametrically opposed, so they tried to correct the Frenchman's approach, but the language barrier and the urgency of the situation prevented him from succeeding. I saw that the French first mate, whose brows were furrowed and his pupils were dilated, quickly turned the huge rudder, and without a significant decrease in speed, the hull of the ship, which was nearly 20 meters above the waterline on the deck and more than 70 meters above the water with the chimney top, began to turn awkwardly. The mountain-like hull does not tilt significantly on sharp turns, as light ships do, and where torpedoes are broken below the waterline, a large amount of seawater is pouring into the hold through the huge hull breakout. This, of course, will not immediately have a noticeable impact on the overall state of the mail ship, but it is a serious and irreversible process of destruction!

At this time, the real crisis situation is close to the lowest level of the hull boiler room and engine room, once directly attacked by seawater, the dilemma of losing power will directly affect the operation of the ship and damage management and leakage work, if it leads to an internal explosion and ignites the fire, the fate of the ship is really irretrievable, and on this giant cruise ship with oil-fired boilers and steam turbines as the main power system, the number of stokers is less than that of an ordinary freighter in the coal-fired power era. Their regular duties have also changed from non-stop coal refueling to maintenance and repairs. Since the "Europa" will be repaired and renovated after arriving in France, it is expected that the French side will mainly send engineers and technicians. In order to ensure the normal navigation of the ship at sea, the French hired American personnel to stay on the ship and work until the end of the voyage to provide the return ticket.

There are very few real American citizens among the dozens of stokers working on the Europa, most of them are wartime people who fled Europe to escape the scourge of war, some were former crew members, some were just looking for a job to support their families, they generally worked on the troop carrier for more than three months, and they knew that this was their last voyage as its hired crew members. In the face of the sudden explosion, they put the preservation of their lives first, rather than doing everything they could to ensure its safety. After the torpedo exploded, the sea water did not spread immediately - although the fierce explosives of the torpedo warhead device produced a strong impact, tearing directly through the outer hull and penetrating multiple layers of cabins in one go, the cruise ship was so huge that the direct damage of one torpedo was limited to some nearby compartments, and since it was almost impossible for the compartments damaged by the explosion to obtain a sufficiently strong and effective damage tube, they were gradually filled with the seawater that poured into the breach, and due to the increase in weight of thousands of tons, the huge cruise ship began to tilt slightly, But it's not the deadliest. Some watertight doors that could not be closed in time and bulkheads that were overwhelmed by the tremendous pressure of the sea water became the path for the sea water to spread further into the ship's cabins.

...... "Door 3 is closed! ”

"Door Four is closed!"

"Door Five is closed! All watertight doors closed! ”

In the main boiler room, where twelve oil-fired boilers are installed, sweaty stokers can easily close the heavy, watertight doors to the outside world, but that doesn't mean they're trapped. Although the ship was designed and built by the Germans, the long hours of work allowed them to familiarize themselves with every detail of the place, including the escape route carefully designed by the German naval engineers. The sturdy passage was able to withstand even moderate blast intensity, allowing the crew in the boiler room to open the circular safety door and pass through the shaft passage to the upper cabin even when all the watertight doors were closed. The previous explosion was violent, but after all, it was a super mail ship with hundreds of cabins, and the impact of the explosion did not spread to this point, and no stokers were injured during this period. Today, in a relatively enclosed space, the roar of the oil-fired boilers is still so noisy, through the roar of this machinery, one is sometimes startled by the sharp sharp of the twisting of metal, and sometimes by the rumble of the sea water against the cabins and partitions. In the absence of any information, some of the stokers thought they should evacuate, but the lead stoker rejected the suggestion on the grounds that he had received instructions from the captain, and when someone forcibly opened the passage door and tried to leave, the stout middle-aged man blocked his men's path and roared like a majestic lion: "Hold your post!" You bastards! Our last double salary, as well as the return ticket, are still with the French, don't you want it? Well? ”

Some flinched, others were resolute, and they shouted, "Stupid pig! Is life or money important? ”

Whether it's a stupid pig or a beast, the stoker suddenly pushed the person who walked in front back, and knocked the safety door with his backhand: "Go back to your posts, it's safe here now, if there is danger, I promise to be the last to go!" ”

Seeing that the stoker's attitude was so tough, most of the stokers were ready to disperse, but at this moment, a strange knock sounded, which sounded like a person stranded in the outer cabin pounding on the door in order to call for help, but this guy's strength was beyond imagination, and the heavy steel watertight door could be pounded.

"Damn, the water is already overflowing! If you don't leave, you'll have to die here! An older stoker yelled in horror.

The stoker, who was a big boxer in stature and heavyweights, was obviously terrified, but he didn't give in, but turned around and walked to the bulkhead where the old phone was hung, and tried to use it to contact the captain and first mate in the cockpit, but the line didn't work, and the sound of the knock outside became more and more urgent and heavier.

On the safe passage, a sturdy stoker forcibly reopened the door and climbed up first. When the second person got in, someone from behind suddenly exclaimed, "There is a leak in the No. 1 boiler!" ”

Boiler No. 1 is located at the front of this boiler room, some distance from the safe passage mouth, and there are no obvious signs of water leakage visible to the naked eye, but there are too many painful memories left by the war, and the explosion that occurred before is so violent, people have no heart to verify the "discovery" of their companions, they are afraid that they will be trapped here, and they rush to the safe passage one by one, even if the stoker wants to stop it, it is useless. In the more and more obvious tremors, he changed his previous brutality and toughness, forgot about the promise that the exit was less than 3 minutes, dropped the phone and squeezed towards the safe passage. As we all know, the ** of survival can make people burst out of the potential of the body, people are scrambling one by one, the stoker has not been able to squeeze back to his position just now even if he is strong, and this vertical upward safety passage can only drill through one person at a time, the more people squeeze me to fight, the lower the efficiency of the passage. In just a few minutes, the leakage in the bulkhead near boiler No. 1 deteriorated sharply, and fountains appeared in the gaps, and water quickly accumulated on the deck. Faced with this situation, the stokers should have reported to the cockpit and turned off the oil-fired boiler in time, so that if not to save the ship's fate, it would have slowed down its sinking and ensured the safety of most people. But after all, this is a mail ship built by Germany and owned by France, and the reward is very small, and if you lose your surname, you will not be able to row it at all. As a result, these stokers, who had been recruited by the U.S. Navy earlier, were only concerned about their own escape, and none of them rushed to the rescue at all. After all, there are lifeboats and a British cruiser outside, and as long as they get out of here, whether the giant ship sinks or not, they have a great hope of survival.

One of the great tragedies of the world is that the more urgent people's hope for survival, the more difficult it is for people to escape. When only the last dozen stokers were left outside the safe passage entrance, the sound of the thump stopped abruptly without warning. You must know that in the cruising state, nine of the twelve oil-fired boilers here are in operation, they originally maintained a stable and rhythmic mechanical roar, the noise loudness is softer than that of the steam turbine, but with the increase of stagnant water, the boiler located in the front suddenly rose white gas, and then produced a strange sound of popping, but several emergency lights were extinguished for no reason at this time. In the near-darkness of the environment, the stokers who remained outside the safe passage almost killed each other for the sake of order. Before they knew it, the cold water was already accumulating under their feet, and they could feel the very rapid rise of the water. Fortunately, the space in the engine room was large enough to not be completely submerged by the sea in just a minute or two, and by the last stoker had finally climbed the vertical ladder of the safe passage, the water rose to the height of a normal person's chest, and took on a terrifying tumbling shape...... on the spacious deck of the "Europa", hundreds of American GIs were basking comfortably in the sun not long ago. Some of them returned to Europe after the war, and some went to Germany for the first time as an occupation force. The former, who may have experienced a German submarine attack on his last transatlantic voyage and had some experience in dealing with dangerous situations, was bewildered by this extremely unexpected situation. Since the end of the war, the United States has stopped the meticulous and thorough maritime emergency training during the war, because in the eyes of the top level, after the destruction of the Third Reich and the Reich, the only potential threat is the Soviet Union, which has a strong army, and their weak naval strength is not as good as the German fleet in the early stage of the war. As a result, these U.S. Army soldiers, who at best had mastered swimming skills, did not know whether to stay on the deck or directly board the lifeboat hanging on the side of the board in this situation, and as a result, some people ran back to the cabin in a panic, and in the lower cabin, the American officers and soldiers who had been sleeping or doing their own things were also dazed by this sudden situation. Some of them hurriedly grabbed their backpacks and ran to the deck, and some responded to the crew's call to go to the leakage site to participate in the damage management rescue. In stark contrast to this chaos, the cabins and passages near the deck have hardly been altered by explosions and temporary turns, and the floors and bulkheads remain dry and tidy, with no sign of the sea rising to the surface, which somewhat paralyzes perception.

"Torpedo! Torpedo! Open fire and shoot! ”

On the port side of the ship, the side on which it had been torpedoed, an American officer suddenly shouted like a madman, and raised his right arm straight to the side. As soon as some soldiers got their rifles, they loaded and fired under the guidance of this officer, and the crackling gunfire was very sparse at first, and scattered bullets were fired at the sea two or three hundred meters away, not to mention whether they could constitute a substantial interception effect on torpedoes sneaking at a depth of several meters. This was obviously a visual error caused by nervousness and inexperience, but this person did not correct it in time, so that more and more American officers and soldiers gathered on this side, from pistols, semi-automatic rifles, and later machine guns to join the ranks of shooting, and the intensity of the gunfire actually overshadowed the posture of the British cruiser!

"What are those confused guys doing?"

Standing on the broadside deck of the cruiser flying the St. George's Cross naval flag, the British [***] officer, dressed in a crisp white naval uniform, looked at the sea inexplicably, and with the magnification of the telescope, he saw the American bullets making a splash on the empty sea. Judging from the situation just now, the attacker set a torpedo depth of about 4 meters. For a large unarmored mail ship, the torpedo hit below the waterline and exploded, and 4 meters was precisely the deadliest hull area of this light cruiser of nearly 10,000 tons. This depth is unattainable not only for pistols and rifles, but also for bullets fired from machine guns of ordinary caliber. Because of this, the ship's large and small guns have been fully mobilized, and even the four triple 6-inch main turrets are on standby, waiting for the torpedoes to appear and intercept them by the most primitive and direct means. As a result, the guns and ammunition of the American [***] team were wasted, not to mention the attention of many officers and sailors on the British cruiser, but the next attack was launched from a diametrically opposite direction.

Today is the Führer's birthday, with personal respect!

(To be continued)