Super Chief

Chapter 731: Block off the bay

The Salvador de Mondo sailing battleship is a first-class sailing battleship with three decks and a displacement of up to 2,108 tons.

   The ship was built from the dock of the Royal Astrillo Shipyard in Havana Bay in 1786 the year before.

  In this era, the Salvador de Mondo sailing battleship with 112 artillery guns (French pounds), pound guns, pound guns and 16 6-pounders is undoubtedly an extremely powerful sailing battleship.

   Salvador de Mundo has a length of 64.3 meters, a width of 17.6 meters, a draft of 8.2 meters, and a crew of up to 900 sailors.

   If there were no steel battleships of the Great China Empire, this Tier 1 battleship with 112 guns could definitely be regarded as a deterrent force in the entire Caribbean. As the flagship of the famous Spanish Upwind Fleet, the Salvador de Mondo also deserves such praise.

   Because of the defeat in the offensive and defensive battle of the Gibraltar Fortress, the Spanish authorities have some different ideas. Coupled with the kind of false prosperity that Carlos III brought to Spain during his reign, even if it is false prosperity, is it prosperous anyway? Let the Spanish leaders decide to build more warships.

   In the past ten years, the Spanish Navy has madly built as many as 8 first-class sailing battleships. This construction speed is undoubtedly extremely crazy.

When the Salvador de Mundo was built, the brutal battle for the fortress of Gibraltar was over, so the ship did not cross the Atlantic to participate in the battle for the fortress of Gibraltar, but stayed in Havana and became the flagship of the Upwind Fleet .

   When the Majestic Empire's fleet arrived about four kilometers from the outskirts of Havana Bay, the Spanish watchers also spotted the menacing fleet.

   At this time, the Spaniards already knew that the Great China Empire had already begun to take action against Spain, but although the two countries had not declared war yet, everyone knew that the two countries were actually at war.

   The army of the Great China Empire slaughtered all quarters in Mexico, and now their fleet has come to Havana, but no one thinks that this fleet came to play. Now that they are here, just hit it!

   But because during the Battle of Boston, many Spanish naval officers saw the power of this steel battleship with their own eyes, so the news about the Great China Empire steel battleship spread early in the Spanish Navy. So when the Spanish navy stationed in Havana learned that the steel battleship had arrived in Havana, they immediately reacted.

   Hundreds of warships of various sizes parked in Havana Bay quickly raised their sails, ready to go out of port to fight with the steel fleet.

   Although the Spanish Navy knows that this kind of steel battleship is very powerful, the fleet that came to Havana this time only had seven steel battleships. And they have more than 120 sailing warships stationed in Havana Bay.

   In the understanding of the Spanish Navy, relying on the overwhelming number of its own warships, the siege alone is enough to defeat the fleet of the Great Chinese Empire.

   Although the soldiers of the Spanish Navy are ugly, they think they are pretty...

  The huge Salvador de Mondo first-class sailing battleship is the first time it has participated in actual naval combat since it was launched, but it is precisely because the Upwind Fleet has such a powerful warship that the soldiers of the Upwind Fleet feel at ease.

   When the fleet had raised all its sails and was preparing to go out of the port along the central river to the open sea to fight to the death with the fleet of the Great China Empire, they suddenly discovered that their fleet could not go out.

   The reason why Havana Bay is one of the few natural deep-water ports in the entire Caribbean is because the bay is deep in the interior of the island of Cuba. Although the area of ​​the bay is not small, the connection with the open sea is only a central river with a length of about two kilometers and a width of less than 300 meters.

  In other words, if someone blocks this central river, then the entire Havana Bay will be blocked.

   When the Spaniards occupied Cuba and set Havana as a naval base on Cuba, they noticed this. Therefore, on both sides of the mouth of the central river, the Spaniards have long built two strong fortresses to protect this important central river.

The direction of the central river is generally northwest-southeast. In order to protect the central river, the Spaniards had taken Havana as early as 1555. Because the French had captured Havana, the Spaniards started on the north bank of the estuary after retaking Havana A fortress began to be built on the headland.

   This fortress at the mouth of the river is called Fort Morro. Later, the Spaniards felt that this fortress could not completely protect the central river, so in 1590 another fortress was built from the headland on the south bank of the estuary-the fortress of San Salvador de la Punta.

   After the construction of these two fortresses, they have been guarding the central river channel more than two hundred meters wide and have become a powerful barrier to Havana Bay.

   Later, in 1630, copper chains were laid in the river channel between Fort de la Punta and Fort Morro to prevent enemy ships from rushing into the bay.

   In short, in this era, after more than two centuries of construction by the Spaniards, the entire Havana Bay can be called a copper wall and iron wall.

It’s just that the Spaniards absolutely never expected that in this era, there will be such bad artillery as the 122mm twin cannon and 105mm twin cannon. After the successful test, the 122mm cannon of the Empire has been used the most. The Cherokee-class battleships were refitted at a fast speed~lightnovelpub.net~ Now the main guns of the seven Cherokee-class battleships have been replaced with 122mm twin guns.

  In this era, any fortress has large-caliber fort cannons and even super-caliber mortars. Whether it is a large-caliber fortress or a super-caliber mortar, the power is undoubtedly very powerful. This kind of gun has absolute lethality against sailing battleships, even if it is against the steel battleships of the Great China Empire, it is also extremely threatening.

   In fact, let alone fortress guns and large-caliber mortars, even the thirty-two 36-pounder guns on the Salvador de Mondo can pose a great threat to Cherokee-class battleships.

   Of course, the premise is that your cannon can shoot my battleship!

   Now the most powerful fortress gun used by European powers is the 64-pounder gun. The range of this large-caliber fortress gun can reach an astonishing 3,500 meters. Of course, at this distance, the accuracy is ridiculously low.

   In fact, even with a 36-pound naval gun, the range can reach close to two kilometers, but the distance that can guarantee shooting accuracy is only five to six hundred meters.

On the Cherokee-class battleship, even the 76 mortar with the closest range has an effective range of more than five kilometers. As for the 76 mm guns, there are 105 and 122 guns. The range is even more capable of chinping all Europeans. Startled.

   So, when the seven Cherokee-class battleships began to block the central river with their guns, the Spaniards were immediately dumbfounded...

  PS: It's Monday again at the beginning of the month, Lao Mo asks for a recommendation. Thank you guys!