At this time, the 36-pounder gun was the main heavy artillery on Western warships. In 1615, Juan de Silva, the Spanish governor of the Philippines, launched an expedition against the Dutch stronghold in Malacca.
Its fleet has more than a dozen ships, equipped with a total of 300 guns, and carries more than 5,000 sergeants and sailors.
Among them, the flagship LaSalvadore was equipped with a total of forty-six guns with a diameter of approximately 5-6 inches.
The smallest of its shells weighs 18 pounds, most are 24 pounds, and a few are 30 pounds. In the Battle of Downs in 1632, the largest warship owned by the Republic of the Netherlands, the Amelia, was taken as an example.
The ship's light load displacement is approximately 600 tons. After all, the Amelia is just a double-deck gunboat, with only 57 guns including deck guns and upper stern guns.
The heavy artillery is: 4 36-pound cannon, 11 24-pound cannon, and 9 18-pound cannon. The total number of heavy artillery is only 24 cannon.
Of course, this type of ship is not a first-class warship, and there is still a big gap between it and Spain's flagship Santa Teresa.
The Santa Teresa had a light load displacement of 1,500 tons and carried 80 guns. This displacement is comparable to the tonnage of Yang Fan's cruiser.
Therefore, at this time, Yang Fan's twelve cruisers have reached the level of the first-class battleships in Europe at the same time.
At this moment, when the Hengshan blocked the exit of the bay, an artillery battle between the two sides would inevitably break out. This is a duel between the highest level warships from the East and the West.
In the horrified cry of Lord Marshfield. Eighteen fifty-pound lead balls flew from more than 200 meters away. A shell of this weight was comparable to a siege cannon.
At such a close distance, all eighteen shells hit the British ship HMS Prince Royal. This ship is not young. The famous British ship designer Pat redesigned a new warship for Prince Henry, who loved warships.
Because Henry's title was Prince, the ship was named the Royal Prince, and he was the Crown Prince, so it was also called the Crown Prince.
In 1610, the Prince Royal was built, the first British three-decker warship. This ship has been in service for 19 years now.
Although Britain has continued to have three-decker warships in service over the years, this old ship is still the main warship with Britain.
Charles I sent this ship to East Asia, which also reflects the importance he attached to this treasure hunt. In his opinion, this old ship is already invincible on the seas of East Asia.
The sides of the Crown Prince are made of one-foot-thick beech wood, which is very hard. Can easily block a direct hit from an 18-pounder at close range.
The dense ribs and thick and hard ship plates can directly deflect cannonballs. Unfortunately, this time they faced a bombardment from a fifty-pounder gun two hundred meters away.
These huge lead balls flew out from the eight-inch muzzle and directly smashed the side of the Crown Prince into pieces.
Such a heavy shell directly penetrated the ship's plank. Large holes with a diameter of about one meter were opened in the ship's plank, and cannonballs and broken wooden spikes swept across the artillery deck behind.
Suddenly, people in the cannon warehouse fell on their backs, and mourning was everywhere. Clipper boats have low freeboard. This design is to reduce windward resistance and increase sailing speed.
Therefore, the height of the gun window is relatively low, parallel to the middle floor of the Kronprinz's bottom and middle gun bays.
Therefore, some of this batch of fifty-pound artillery shells hit the bottom 36-pound gun compartment. Some hit the middle 24-pound gun compartment.
Because Yang Fan's heavy artillery does not use Western wooden four-wheeled artillery carts. It is a metal gun mount with rails and heavy springs to offset the recoil.
You can easily adjust the height and left and right shooting range by shaking the handle. Therefore, it can hit all positions of enemy ships and is not affected by its own low status.
So this round is aimed at the bottom position. Because everyone knows that due to the center of gravity on the ship, the heavy artillery must be placed on the lower deck.
The threat from heavy artillery is even greater. Earl Marshfield felt a violent tremor under his feet, which felt like an earthquake.
He fell down onto the corridor. The 36-pounder gun compartment was in a mess. Four or five heavy guns were knocked over.
Stacked powder barrels and lead bullets were knocked away. Groups of artillerymen were hit by jumping shells, leaving a bloody alley.
Then it penetrated the opposite wall again and flew out. Earl Masfield saw with his own eyes that a fifty-pound cannonball actually penetrated this huge battleship.
On the other side of the ship, fifty-pound shells fell into the sea, causing a huge splash. He crawled into the VIP cabin and hid under the oak desk.
Nowhere on this ship is safe right now. Because the opponent's heavy artillery can penetrate anywhere.
Theodore was standing on the bridge at the stern of the ship, his face ashen. He did not expect that he would encounter such a terrifying warship in East Asia.
At this time, he greeted the Spanish Governor of Manila over and over again in his heart. In 1574, the Governor of the Philippines, Recker, wrote a letter to King Philip II of Spain, claiming that he could conquer the Ming Dynasty of China with only 60 soldiers, and asked the king to allow his plan.
Even the king thought it was ridiculous, so he didn't approve it. But the letter was widely circulated in Europe. Let them think that Ming's ships are extremely backward.
By 1586, a large number of Spanish colonial representatives gathered in Manila, including soldiers, missionaries, merchants, etc. After long discussions, they finally formulated a detailed plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty of China.
According to their ridiculous plan, they prepared to send 12,000 soldiers from Spain, Portugal sent 5,000 soldiers, and at the same time, Jesuit missionaries recruited 5,000 Japanese samurai in Japan. The total force would eventually reach between 20,000 and 25,000.
The Spaniards also tried to bring the British into the fold, claiming that the Ming Dynasty's navy was not worth mentioning. They are all small boats, and the guns are of small caliber and few in number.
This time when he came to the waters of Southeast Asia, Charles I prepared warships based on the information provided by the Spanish.
But now, the one that was firing at him looked like a pirate ship driven by people from the Ming Dynasty. It was big and powerful.
Although there are indeed not as many artillery pieces as his battleships, they are all fifty-pound cannons of the same caliber.
This is the first time Westerners have seen that there is a battleship with unified artillery calibers.
"Look how many usable artillery pieces are left. Fire back immediately." Theodore roared. In the era of sailing battleships, the captain directed the battle and navigation of the ship from the bridge at the end of the deck.
So how was his order conveyed to the deck and lower gun compartment? After all, in this era, the West had not invented sound transmission channels on battleships.
In this era, war drums were used to convey the captain's orders. On the bridge, three soldiers immediately beat the war drums. According to the rhythm of the drums, the whole ship knew the captain's order.
This is the same as semaphore, which is something you can become proficient in during daily training. With the order given. The gun positions on the deck, the middle gun bunker, and the bottom gun bunker were all in action.
At this time, the main hardest-hit area was the gun bunker on the ground floor. Because there are heavy artillery there, which poses the greatest threat, priority is given to the cruiser Hengshan to take care of it.
The high quality of the sailors on the Western first-class battleships was immediately apparent. Although the first salvo fired by the cruiser Hengshan was in a mess.
But the people on the Prince's number all performed their duties and were in their respective places. He immediately rushed to his post.
