Chapter 331 Boarding Battle
As the ship moved forward rapidly, Gervis finally saw the appearance of the island. The island was surrounded by rock walls and covered with dense forests. Groups of seabirds were flying and playing among the trees.
This island is not small. Gervis and others have been sailing close to the island for more than 20 minutes. It is roughly estimated that the diameter of the island is at least seven or eight kilometers.
The ship had already circled half of the island, but still could not find any trace of the pirate ship, nor could it find a place to dock the ship, because all it could see were still steep cliffs.
"Lil, have you ever landed on this island before?"
Even if the remaining pirate ships were not on this island, Gervis actually wanted to go aboard and take a look. This island was not far from the Storm Territory, with a straight-line distance of less than 20 nautical miles.
If there was fresh water or other valuable supplies on it, Gervis could take them for himself.
After all, these islands are unowned, so there is no need to worry about any disputes.
They have already circled half of the island, but have not found a suitable place to land. This makes Gervis a little disappointed. If there is no suitable place to moor the boat, it will definitely be inconvenient to land on the island in the future.
"Sir, we have never landed before. This is also our first time in this sea area. There is no trading port here, and merchant ships will not pass through here. Therefore, Wright has been leading us along the waters of the coast of Lakin Territory."
After hearing Lille's answer, Gervis did not continue speaking, but looked forward.
There is a protruding cliff in front, at least ten meters high, and the waves hitting the cliff are spectacular.
Just as the ship passed the corner of the cliff, the scenery ahead suddenly became clear.
There are no towering rock walls ahead, but instead a concave harbor with a four to five hundred meter long white sandy beach.
"There's a ship ahead! There's a ship ahead!"
This urgent shout came from the mast, but in fact, there was no need for him to shout, because Gervis and others also saw the scene ahead.
More than 100 meters away from the beach, more than 10 pirate ships were lined up in the harbor, and not far from the pirate ships, more than a dozen small wooden boats were desperately rowing towards the pirate ships from the beach.
"Quick! Straight to the pirate ship!"
At this moment, Gervis was extremely excited. Judging from the dozen or so small wooden boats, the number of these pirates was not large, no more than a hundred at most.
The most important thing is that they did not stay on the ship, but set up camp on the beach. This was the best opportunity for Gervis to capture all the pirate ships.
While shouting, Gervis ran quickly to the stern and came to Lille's side. At this moment, Gervis's sword was already unsheathed.
"Yes...Yes, sir!"
Seeing that Gervis had drawn his sword, Lill did not dare to delay at all. He turned the wheel quickly and headed straight towards the pirate ships anchored in the sea.
"Tell the ships behind us that everyone should prepare to board! If any small wooden boats try to board, just shoot the pirates on those small boats with bows and arrows!"
Seeing that Lille was not playing any tricks and that his large ship was rapidly approaching the nearest pirate ship with the help of the wind, Gervis shouted loudly to the observer on the mast.
He only had five ships in total. If he didn't quickly control the ten pirate ships, it would not be easy to catch up with them once the pirates on the small wooden boats boarded.
Pirate ships are different from merchant ships. Merchant ships are easily caught up by pirates because they are fully loaded with cargo, have a deep draft and move slowly.
The pirate ships had no cargo except daily necessities. The ships were light and fast, and when they sailed into the sea, there was nothing that could be done to them.
There are no such things as cannons in this world, and the only long-range weapon is the longbow, so don't even expect to be able to sink the enemy from a long distance.
"Everyone, prepare for battle! When we get close to the pirate ship, leave ten people on this ship, and jump onto the other ship! Quickly take control of the pirate ship, and if anyone resists, kill them immediately!"
“Hurry up!”
As Gervis finished his words, Gervis's ship finally approached the pirate ship closest to them.
At this moment, there were three pirates on the pirate ship, turning the capstan with fear on their faces, trying to retrieve the anchor from the sea.
Boom!
Finally, as the hulls paused, the sides of the two ships collided with each other. When the swaying of the hulls stopped, Ike and others steadied themselves, then lifted the gangway that had been prepared on the side and stepped over.
Naval battles in this world are basically boarding battles, and pirate ships exist specifically to plunder merchant ships, so there is no shortage of boarding ladders on ships.
This type of gangway is actually similar to a single-plank bridge, except that two curved iron hooks are installed at one end of the bridge. When boarding, the hooks can be firmly fixed on the enemy's ship's side, and there is no need to worry about it moving or being pushed off the ship by the enemy.
After Ike and others set up five wooden ladders in succession, everyone drew their swords and quickly jumped onto the pirate ship using the ladders.
"Surrender and you won't be killed!"
In order to save as much time as possible, Gervis directly shouted the slogan of persuading surrender. Now, saving one more minute might allow the capture of one more ship.
"We surrender! We surrender! Don't kill us!"
The three pirates on the pirate ship were just turning the capstan. After Ik and others set up the gangway and boarded the ship, they reluctantly gave up retrieving the anchor and leaned timidly against the other side of the ship with their weapons in hand, fearfully holding them.
After hearing Gervis' words of persuasion to surrender, he felt as if he had been pardoned. Without thinking, he dropped the weapon in his hand without hesitation, knelt on the ground and begged for mercy loudly.
The next things were much simpler. Ike and others quickly stepped forward, found a rope and tied the three people to the mast. The first pirate ship was easily captured by Gervis.
"Leave five of you to watch over this ship! The rest of you return to the ship, and we'll continue to the next one!"
Seeing that the pirate ship fell into his hands, Gervis became even more excited and quickly gave orders to Ike and others.
This pirate ship was closest to Degervis's ship, but also the farthest from the coast, so the small wooden boats that the pirates were riding on did not row towards this side from the beginning, but instead rowed quickly towards several ships at the other end.
"Lill, hurry up, ignore the ships in the middle, head straight for the one where the pirates are landing, we can't let them get away!"
At this moment, a small boat in front had already approached the pirate ship, and the pirates had already begun to board the pirate ship. Gervis quickly said to Lille that if the pirate ship was allowed to sail away successfully, it would definitely take a lot of effort to catch up with it.
In Gervis's view, these pirate ships have now become his trophies, so how could he bear to let them escape?
"Yes, sir!"
Seeing Gervis' urgent urging, Lill waited for Ik and the others to retract the gangway and the sailors to adjust the sails, and then he immediately rushed over there.
Whoosh whoosh!
Under Lil's helm, Gervis and his men passed the pirate ship docked in the middle and came to the other end. There were at least twenty pirates on board the pirate ship here.
When the two ships were dozens of meters apart, the pirates on the pirate ship also noticed Gervis's actions and immediately began to attack Gervis and others with longbows!
"Fight back! Shoot those pirates who are raising the sails first, then shoot those longbowmen!"
There were not many longbowmen on the enemy ship, only four or five. Although most of the arrows hit the deck, the rustling sounds could not cause any harm to Gervis and his men.
However, there were 10 slave longbowmen and seven personal guards of Ik on Gervis' ship.
Whoosh whoosh!
Bang bang bang!
After receiving Gervis' order, the slave longbowmen, Ike and others fought back quickly. In an instant, more than a dozen arrows and lead bullets fired from muskets shot towards the pirate ship dozens of meters away.
"ah!"
Although the ship was a little bumpy, for the slave longbowmen, such a close distance was nothing. One round of arrows took away more than a dozen pirates on the pirate ship.
However, most of the lead bullets shot by Ike and others missed their targets and hit the side of the pirate ship, stirring up a lot of wood chips.
"The longbowmen continue to suppress, Ike, prepare for a boarding battle!"
"Lille, just come over there!"
More than a dozen pirates were shot down in an instant on the pirate ship, which originally had less than thirty people on board. The pirates on the ship could no longer remain calm and began to replace the fallen pirates and wanted to continue raising the sails.
Boom!
Unfortunately, all this was in vain. At a distance of dozens of meters, under the blowing of the sea breeze, it only took a few seconds for Gervis's ship to crash heavily into the pirate ship.
"kill!"
Ike and others quickly set up the gangway and rushed up.
"No killing for surrender! No killing for surrender!"
(End of this chapter)
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