Chapter 858 The Third Battle of Ceylon: It's better to come early than to come at a good time

Ten cruisers, sixteen battleships, including eight fourth-class battleships with fifty-fifty-fifty-six guns, eight battleships of the third class with seventy-four guns. The latter was built by Britain five years ago in accordance with the situation in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, emphasizing ocean-going performance, and is a cutting-edge combat force that the British Navy can project beyond European waters.

After the Second Battle of Ceylon, the British East Indies Fleet underwent some adjustments, and the current strength was the strongest that Britain could mobilize to the Indian Ocean, and the more powerful second-class and even first-class battleships were too bulky and too poor in ocean-going performance to travel thousands of miles to the Indian Ocean.

Compared with the scale of the total displacement of the 170,000-ton battleships of the British Navy [1], the battleship displacement of this fleet is only 23,000 tons, but it is already all the battleship resources that Britain can use to compete for India, and the center of the British Navy is first Europe, followed by the North American route, the third is the Mediterranean, and finally India.

The commander-in-chief of the fleet, Admiral Howard, who had a white beard, conveyed his final determination to his subordinates: "Britain, there will be no defeat!" ”

Howard was not arrogant, and all the British admirals who could be promoted to fleet commander and command a fleet were very cautious, even extremely conservative. After the Second Battle of Ceylon, Howard was succeeded by the deputy commander as commander, and adopted a defensive strategy, no longer provoking the similarly devastated Western Fleet, and after recovering Madras and Fort St. David's, he learned that the main force of the Seris Southern Ocean Fleet was coming, and resolutely retreated and asked London for reinforcements.

Even when reinforcements arrived, Howard still felt he was in a vulnerable position. There are also four battleships in the Western Fleet, plus the eighteen cutting-edge battleships of the Southern Fleet, and the total number of capital ships is really one and a half times its own. Add to that the large cruisers that the Cyrisians have as many as thirty ships in the Western and Southern Ocean fleets, and are comparable to the fourth-tier battleships, Howard would never have the courage to fight the Cyris head-on.

But Howard had to strike, and according to the Portuguese and French, if it dragged on any longer, the Cyris would have mustered together at least eight battleships during the year. If a decisive battle is not held sooner rather than later to weaken the naval power of the Serisians, the Indian Ocean is no longer a place for Britain to set foot in.

To this end, Howard devised a plan for the final battle in order to weaken the forces of the Seris as much as possible. Thanks to the adventures of George Anson, the remnant of the First Ceylon Naval War. The Seris sent at least ten cruisers to hunt him down. Howard also sent four cruisers and all the armed merchant ships he could muster to the south of Malacca to Java, and pinned down at least four more battleships and eight cruisers of the Serisians.

In other words, at this moment, the Seris in front of Howard's fleet only had a maximum of eighteen battleships and ten cruisers, and the two sides were still evenly matched in size.

Howard's confidence came from the experience gained from the First and Second Naval Battles of Ceylon, in which the Cyris's ships outnumbered Britain in terms of artillery and speed. Their rifled cannons were both feared and envied by the British navy, and their ships were more slender and suitable for long-range artillery battles. Because of this, the former commander, Admiral Vernon, took a risk in melee combat, unwilling to confront the Cyrisian array.

However, the Cyris navy also had obvious weaknesses, and most of their warships were made of teak, which was less protective than the British battleships with oak hulls. This somewhat neutralized the artillery superiority of the Seris. The second is that the Cyris battleship places too much emphasis on ocean-going performance, and the battleships are generally larger than the Britannia I, but the guns are less loaded. In addition, the sail control skills of the Seris were far less skilled than the Britons, which was also the main reason for the defeat of the Seris Western Fleet in the Second Battle of Ceylon. …,

Less than a year later, the lessons of the Second Battle of Ceylon could not be remedied immediately, and Howard was confident that he would win again, with only doubt about how much he would pay.

The captains cheered and toasted, ended the brief but passionate pre-battle mobilization meeting, and returned to their ships on sampans.

"Admiral, why isn't Britain victorious. And what if you want to say that it won't fail? Does Your Excellency the Admiral have any other concerns? ”

After the captains left, the commander's attendant adjutant, who was still just a teenager, asked in surprise.

The old admiral sighed: "Here, in the Indian Ocean, it is not enough for Britain to win once, so what I have to pray for is not to fail." ”

He looked at the young squire. With a wry smile: "Morris, you still don't understand, the Seris people can lose all the time, but it is enough for them to win once." They can put eighty percent, or even ninety percent of their navy into the Indian Ocean, and we Britain can? ”

The young squire, Maurice Sockering, held his head high: "I firmly believe in Your Excellency's words, Britain will not fail!" Britain is destined to be the ruler of India! ”

The old admiral nodded, did not continue to pour cold water on the young man, but said in his heart: "This is the last venture capital made by Britain in India, in order not to cause greater losses, Britain can fail, but I can't fail......"

At about 11 a.m. on July 17, 1738, 400 nautical miles northeast of Ceylon, not far from the decisive sea area of the Second Battle of Ceylon, British cruisers cruising in front of the fleet discovered traces of the main fleet of the Cyris Navy, and the Third Battle of Ceylon broke out.

The battlefield is not an active choice for both sides, because this line happens to be the dividing line between the sea areas controlled by the two sides. The brigs used by the Britannica and Cyris's scouts to relay the news of the movements of the opponent's main fleet were all about the same time, and the two sides were already thinking of a decisive battle, learning of each other's traces, approaching each other, and finally meeting in the sea area just here.

It is precisely because of this calculation that there are many spectators cruising near the sea area, including French, Portuguese and even Dutch cruisers, and to the south of the French cruiser, dozens of nautical miles, there are six French battleships eyeing the tiger. Although an informal agreement had been signed with the Seris to divide India and to work together against the British, the fleet had no intention of fighting alongside the Seris fleet. The Prime Minister, who was far away in Paris, ordered that the French fleet not intervene in the battle between the two sides until the defeat of the Britons was a foregone conclusion. The undocumented order was ambiguous, and the fleet commander understood it to mean that when the time was right, he could act with the Britons and expel the Seris from the Indian Ocean.

Of course, the Dutch were bent on the defeat of Seris, but they hated that their navy was too weak, and Batavia was still under the threat of the Seris, so they did not dare to act rashly. The mood of the Portuguese was more mixed, and the royal government had been pressured by the British. Not only could they not help the Seris, but they also had to support the Britons in terms of intelligence. In this battle, no matter who wins or loses, the Portuguese will be held accountable. Therefore, they preferred a repeat of the Second Battle of Ceylon, where both sides were bleeding and had no time to trouble the Portuguese.

At about 12 o'clock, the Cyris fleet was about twenty nautical miles away from the British fleet, and the size of the Cyris fleet had been confirmed, twenty battleships, twelve cruisers. Although slightly beyond Howard's estimate. The previous feint strategy didn't work well, but the pressure wasn't too great.

"Seize the upper hand, line up the front, shorten the gap between the fronts......"

Howard gave the order to the fleet, ordered the flag to be hoisted on the mast, and the battleship moved like his arms and fingers, and drew a circle towards the Ceris fleet. …,

Compared to the Seris. The British Navy also had the advantage of fleet battles. Although the Seris had defeated the Spaniards, they had fought two previous battles of Ceylon. But these three naval battles were all skirmishes, and compared to the British Navy's accumulated experience in naval warfare, they were nothing short of infancy-versus-the-pounds.

With more than ten capital ships in battle, the technology required to organize a fleet is already very complex. Howard was convinced that the Seris would not be able to make their fleet unleashed, and that the Seris would be defeated against the enemy on the most traditional battle lines. This strategy is the opposite of the Second Battle of Ceylon, and the Seris must have been thinking about how to deal with Britain's close-range melee strategy this year, but they did not expect that they would change their tactics.

More than an hour later, the sails of both sides had built a long causeway on both sides of the sky and sea. The cross flag and the blood-red twin dragon flag are clearly visible through the telescope. The southwest wind was blowing in the Indian Ocean in the summer, and the Cyris fleet from the east was at a loss, and was going from the northeast to the west, while the British fleet had the upper hand, and sixteen battleships were arranged in two columns, straight into the middle line of the Seris fleet. Prepare for a close enemy turn, parallel to the lead of the Cyris battleship.

The response of the Cyris fleet was very sluggish, and the twenty battleships were also lined up in two, ready to baptize the approaching British fleet with broadside guns. Howard stood on the helm of the flagship Fury, silently calculating the fleet's losses before the turn was complete.

The battleships were in action, and the cruisers, which could not participate in the battle line, were not idle. The British cruisers swung like wolves towards the tail of the Cyris line, causing all the Cyris cruisers to block them. As the two battle lines were slowly approaching, one horizontally and one vertically, the cruiser's guns rang out.

"Persistence...... No matter what the cost, the turn must be done! After the turn, the end of the Seris has arrived! ”

Towards two o'clock in the afternoon, the front of the British line had rushed to less than a nautical mile of the Seris line, and was beginning to make a death turn. The rifled cannons and thirty-pound cannons of the Seris continued to scrub over the British battleship, and although it was difficult for the smoothbore guns to inflict lethal damage at such a distance, the hull of the leading battleship could still be seen spraying clumps of debris. The eerie whistling sound of rifled cannonballs was even more terrifying, and the occasional explosion of orange flames struck the hearts of Britons like hammers.

But the British, who claimed to be the supremacy of the seas, would not be intimidated by such an attack, and although the leading ships of the battle line were scars, they still gritted their teeth and insisted on continuing to shorten the distance with the other side after completing the turn, never firing their guns until they reached nearly 1,000 yards, and never opening the doors of the middle gun deck until they reached nearly 500 yards.

When the flagship Fury had also completed its turn and was approaching a distance of a thousand yards, the hull began to tremble slightly, and not only was it constantly hit by the enemy's artillery, but also the twenty-four pounder guns on the upper deck of the Fury began to bombard. This was just to suppress the enemy's artillery fire, and compared to the guns of the Cyris battleship, the British artillery was always inferior in range, accuracy, and rate of fire. Coupled with the rifled cannons of the Serisians, the British battleships were basically in a passive situation before they reached nearly five hundred yards.

"Thankfully, the rifled guns have a low chance of triggering explosive shells, and there aren't many three-inch caliber ones, and if the Seris overcome these shortcomings, they will be the true sea lords."

Howard was glad to see that the rifled guns of the Seris continued to hit his ships accurately, only occasionally exploding flames. In the first two battles of Ceylon, the British battleships had suffered enough from the Ceris rifled guns. At least a nautical mile away, he was the target of the Seris, which was very uncomfortable. Fortunately, most of these rifled guns were two-inch guns, and the lethality of the shells was not very large. Even if a flowering bomb is used, it can penetrate the ship's board and explode again, but the detonation rate is still very low. No more than 20%.