Chapter 197 Caribbean Ghost (First update, please subscribe)

May 1, 1863.

This will be a day that is destined to be remembered in history.

A few hours after the sun rose, Nanhua Bay was still shrouded in layers of mist. At this time, a steamer carrying a group of people with a special mission was slowly and solemnly sailing towards the mouth of the bay. Dozens of members of the delegation, led by two gentlemen, gathered on the cruise deck of the ship.

One of them was a Westerner with a big black beard, wearing a suit and a top hat. His name was Reis Angell, and he was the translator of the delegation.

The other one was the focus of everyone. He stood straight with a solemn expression, also wearing a black suit. As the head of the delegation, Zuo Zongtang, he will lead a delegation of 58 people and 137 overseas students on the expedition today.

These people of different ages represent the past and future of China.

Just as the New Hope sailed out of the bay, a booming salute sounded from the artillery position at the mouth of the bay...

Amid the sound of the salute, Zhu Xianhai looked solemn as he stared at the receding steamship. He muttered silently to himself.

"I hope that when you come back, you can bring a better future to this area."

Leaving the bay together with the New Hope steamship was another steamship, a steam clipper of over 1,000 tons. Unlike ordinary steamships, it had a lower freeboard and did not even have a tall mast - it was the South China Clipper.

To the outside world, the "South China Clipper" is not very famous, but in the Caribbean region, it has another famous nickname - "Caribbean Ghost".

The so-called "Caribbean Ghosts" are actually high-speed smuggling ships, which are steam ships known for their speed. Until now, no one knows where those ships were built or even where they set out from.

But what is certain is that these ghost ships brought too much military supplies to the South.

Since the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Northern Navy has been implementing a naval blockade against the South, and now the Northern Navy's naval blockade has become increasingly strict. By the end of 1864, more than 470 federal blockade warships were in service, and their scale was large enough to prevent any ship from sneaking through the blockade.

Although the Northern Navy only implemented a symbolic blockade in the early stages of the war, Zhu Xianhai had been thinking about how to break through the blockade after learning from the lessons of the successive setbacks in the smuggling of weapons to the South American side in the simulator.

The simplest way is to build a high-speed smuggling ship - just like the "big plane" on the coast of another time and space, relying on high speed to break through the maritime blockade.

In fact, this is also the most common method used by South China and Federation smugglers in the simulator. In the later period of the war, the typical blockade-breaking ship was the Wald ship built in Britain. It has a shallow draft, extremely low freeboard, almost no superstructure, and the engine is installed in the hull as low as possible. The long hull of these ships is slender, but as much space as possible in the ship is handed over to the cargo. The hull lines are beautiful and streamlined, with an arc to the hull, the stern is rounded to reduce the wake, and the bow is designed as a graceful bow to keep the bow low in the water.

Although this type of ship has a very low freeboard and a high speed, it is not easy to break through the northern navy in the later period. However, the Wald ship improved by Nanhua is completely different. Compared with the original 150 or 200 horsepower diagonal engine of the Wald ship, Nanhua Shipyard directly replaced it with a 1000-1500 horsepower triple expansion steam engine, which increased its speed to 18 knots!

In this era, such a high-speed breakthrough ship is absolutely a heaven-defying existence! With the launch of high-speed breakthrough ships, the trade between Nanhua and the Confederation is constantly strengthening. The tens of thousands of tons of materials brought by those breakthrough ships have also become blood-drawing machines for the Americans.

…

In the early morning, the harbor was as quiet as usual. Although the South had not yet lost all of its ports, with the increasingly tight blockade from the North, very few ships could enter the port.

Although there was a little sea fog on the sea, there were many Confederate soldiers standing on the fort, all of them staring at the sea.

“Is the ghost ship coming?”

"Don't worry, there will definitely be a ghost ship that breaks through the Yankee blockade, don't worry!"

"I bet a dollar that no ship will come today. I heard that the Yankees have dispatched dozens of warships to stop the ghost ship. I dare say that even the "Sea Fox" may not be able to safely sail the ship into Richmond!"

The "Sea Fox" as the soldiers called him was the most famous captain in the Confederacy's smuggling circle. A year ago, after his ship appeared in this sea area, it broke through the Northern Navy's blockade dozens of times in succession and brought a large amount of supplies to the Confederacy, hence the nickname.

These sailors did not know that while they were chatting, in the deep sea less than a hundred nautical miles from Richmond, a steamship with a low freeboard, even the sides of which were painted in blue, white and black camouflage, was sailing slowly. It was not going fast, and on the lonely mast stood two lookouts, who were observing the situation at sea.

"Captain, no Federation warships were found nearby."

"Of course there is!"

Lin Yuehu narrowed his eyes and sneered.

"They must be waiting for us nearby. Now..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the lookout on the mast shouted loudly.

"A column of smoke is spotted at 8 o'clock on the port side!"

Column of smoke!

It's not the mast, the lookout shouted again as he picked up the telescope and looked to the port side.

"Found in two columns of smoke..."

"Captain, could it be a smuggling ship?"

The answer is obviously no.

"It's impossible for two breakthrough ships to appear at the same time. They must be the navy setting up an ambush..."

Lin Yuehu held the telescope in one hand and shouted.

"Listen to my orders, force ventilation, and advance at full speed..."

There was no need to hide it now. Speed ​​was the key to a breakthrough. Soon, the camouflaged ship, which was not very noticeable on the sea, began to accelerate and move towards the land. Although it used high-quality Welsh anthracite, the smoke from the chimney was still very noticeable.

As it accelerated, the federal navy in the distance immediately discovered them, and soon, columns of water rose around it. Lin Yuehu completely ignored this.

"speed!"

As long as you are fast enough, they will just be left eating dust behind!

"What kind of ship is this?"

The major on the Union steamer complained indignantly.

"How can their ships be so fast? If all of them are like this, we won't be able to stop them with these broken ships we have captured..."

Even if they were using the best steamships in the world, that is, the steam smuggling ships that were surrendered to the Southerners, to intercept these Caribbean ghosts, they could only follow behind them and eat dust.

They could only watch those ghost ships quickly leave their sight. After all, those ghost ships were almost twice as fast as them.

In fact, it was not that fast, only about 20 knots. But in this era, this speed was absolutely amazing.

Looking at the ghost ship going away, the American naval officer on the steamship could not help but swear.

"Their ship must be equipped with the latest British steam engine! Otherwise, it would be impossible for it to run so fast!"

"Damn the English! If it weren't for the English, this war might have already started."

Of course, when these people were cursing the British, they had no idea that these ships actually came from another unknown place in the southern hemisphere.

These ships were converted from the beginning to smuggle arms to the South so that the South could continue the war.

In fact, almost every country is exporting arms to the South now, but apart from these ghost ships, most other smugglers are just small individuals - and these ghost ships come from South China!

I have set up a book club: 335260551. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.

(End of this chapter)