Because if you go around the southern waters of Tierra del Fuego, you will be exposed to the roaring westerlies without any shelter. The storm is like the roar of hell, and the sea surface is where the overwhelming power of the two oceans converges.
This sea area is still a shallow sea with many reefs. Sailboats can easily run aground and hit reefs under the influence of strong winds and rough waves, causing shipwrecks.
In another time and space, more than 500 ships sank in this sea area, and more than 20,000 people died in the sea. The Bermuda Triangle, known as the devil's land, is nothing compared to this place.
But forcing their way through the Strait of Magellan would only result in the annihilation of the entire army.
As a captain, one must always choose the lesser of two evils, so Lin Feng chose to challenge nature!
After leaving the Strait of Magellan, the fleet sailed southeast with the wind. Driven by the howling westerly wind, the ship speed reached a terrifying 25 knots. It took only one day to complete the 400-kilometer journey and arrived at the northeastern corner of Tierra del Fuego.
However, the fleet did not turn due west, but turned southwest to stay as far away from Tierra del Fuego as possible. Lin Feng would rather go in a circle and sail a little further in the stormy waves to avoid hitting the densely packed reef islands along the coast of Tierra del Fuego to avoid shipwreck and loss of life.
According to the map, if we walk only another 400 kilometers, we will cross Tierra del Fuego and enter the South Pacific.
However, the following voyage was like suddenly falling into hell.
Not long after we walked, the wind on the sea suddenly intensified without warning, followed by a torrential rain. Lightning was tearing at the sky with its fangs and claws. The thunder was completely drowned out by the sound of wind and waves. The sky and the earth were pitch black, and it was impossible to tell whether we were moving forward or backward.
The huge waves at the confluence of the two oceans were like the giant arms of the sea god, throwing up and catching this fleet that overestimated its own strength. This time, even a huge ship like Liu Daxia could not withstand it and was thrown up and down like a leaf.
Waves more than ten meters high kept washing the deck, sweeping all the items that were not firmly fixed into the sea. At this time, the crew did not dare to stand on the deck at all, and all huddled in the cabin. They did not dare to sleep in the hammocks, otherwise they would be thrown hard against the deck, and a bloody head would be the least of their worries.
In order to avoid injury, the crew could only tie themselves to the horizontal railing of the hammock in the cabin with ropes, and then, just like riding a giant loop in later generations, their bodies swayed up and down and left and right with the hull like rag dolls.
The six sailboats were repeatedly lifted into the air by the huge waves, and then plunged into the whirlpools. The solid hulls were shaken and creaked, and even slightly deformed, not to mention the people inside.
After more than two years of rough seas, the crew thought they would never get seasick, but now they were vomiting and vomiting gall.
Every time the ship fell, they would have a feeling of dying, capsizing and sinking to the bottom of the sea. Some young men with fragile minds fainted from fear. Even the most fearless sailors could not help but mutter that they were going to die...
Even Xuelang failed and vomited all over himself, crying and confessing to the Buddha:
"Buddha, I was wrong. I didn't go to the brothel for art. I was just lustful and flirty. What do you mean by not really coming? I haven't broken the precepts. I was just deceiving myself. I just like to go against the norm..."
In the boundless fear, he asked for forgiveness from the Buddha again and again, and vowed that if he could step on land with both feet, he would never go out to sea again, visit brothels, or eat fine food. He would be a good monk who abides by the precepts and live only on masturbation from then on...
Oh no, I won't even jerk off, I'm holding it in! I swear!
~~
At night the temperature dropped below zero and the storm instantly turned into a blizzard.
The strong wind was enough to blow through the planks of the ship, and the ship soon became an ice cave. The crew members were shivering with cold even though they were wearing fur coats or woolen vests and wrapped in blankets. They could only hug each other to keep warm by their body temperature.
Zhang Xiaojing, Qianyi and Xiaoheimei also snuggled together in the quilt, and there were two little capybaras in the quilt.
This thing has completely become a pet...
"Wow, Miss, where are we? How long will it take to get there?" Qianyi asked crying.
Zhang Xiaojing was already seasick and couldn't stand up. She looked pale, holding a compass and a clock in her hands, and smiled weakly: "It's always heading south..."
"Ah?" Xiao Hei Mei and Qian Yi exclaimed, "Where will we be blown to then?"
"In Antarctica, if you're lucky, you can even see penguins." Zhang Xiaojing said with some resignation.
After saying this, she felt secretly ashamed that she could no longer hold on, but Lin Feng was still sticking to her post in the helm room.
~~
In the wheelhouse, Lin Feng held the handrails of the table tightly with both hands, stared at the compass above, and gave orders loudly to the helmsmen, asking them to correct the course.
As a captain, others can fall, but she cannot. She must lead the fleet out of this sea of death!
In the face of strong winds, we have no control over our own actions, but we still have to adjust our direction to the best of our ability and keep moving forward.
Although if she had known that this damn sea was so terrible, she would definitely continue to stay in the buttocks ditch of the Falkland Islands and drive the Spaniards away first. But now it is too late to say anything, and she can only move forward bravely!
Just as Lin Feng was concentrating on fighting the strong wind and waves, the door of the wheelhouse suddenly opened, and Ma Yishan stumbled in and shouted: "Captain, the Tianbao sent a signal saying that they are leaking seriously!"
"What?!" Lin Feng's head buzzed. The situation she was most worried about happened.
She quickly put on her raincoat and went out to the wheelhouse with Ma Yishan's support. She looked in the direction he pointed and saw three lights swaying in the strong wind two or three hundred meters behind her.
The Tempo was the captured Spanish galleon, and in fact, it was in good condition. Unfortunately, it had three inherent deficiencies: first, the high poop made it difficult to turn; second, the Western full rigging required too many people, and they had to climb up the mast to operate it, which was murderous in such weather.
Third, there is no watertight compartment design. If the leak cannot be stopped, the entire ship is in danger of capsizing.
In fact, all the goods on the Tianbao had been sold in Brazil, and the gold and silver had been moved to the Liu Daxia.
Zhang Xiaojing advocated selling the Tianbao as well, but on the one hand, the Portuguese did not dare to take the Spanish warship, and on the other hand, the crew members were reluctant to part with such a good ship and wanted to drive it back to present it to Master Zhao.
Lin Feng also felt that as war with Spain was imminent, the group was in dire need of large warships. If the Tianbao was driven back and modified, it would become a very good firepower platform.
In a moment of thought, she left the boat behind.
Then something went wrong...
The sinking of the ship is not a big deal, the problem is that there are still 120 crew members on board!
It takes at least fifty crew members to sail the Tianbao. The crew members have to work in two shifts, and there are also twenty marines as guards.
"Lao Ma, raise the signal and order them to abandon ship and evacuate immediately!" Without caring about blaming himself, Lin Feng made a prompt decision: "Sound the alarm, all ships enter life-saving mode!"
"Okay!" Ma Yishan quickly passed on the order.
Soon, the signalman climbed up the mast with difficulty in the strong wind and hung up two ship lights, one red and one yellow.
At the same time, the alarm bells on the Liu Daxia rang loudly!
Soon, the Wenzhou, Taizhou, Fuzhou and Gaoyou Lake ships, which saw the signal, also sounded the alarm one after another.
The crew members, who were vomiting weakly and hugging each other in ecstasy, jumped up reflexively when they heard the alarm, quickly put on their red life jackets filled with cork, and then rushed out of the cabin one after another.
Upon learning that the Tianbao was about to sink, the crew members who had a stress reaction were no longer seasick, and they immediately worked together to manipulate the sails and cables to get as close to the Tianbao as possible.
On the Tianbao, the crew also came to the deck wearing life jackets and hurriedly put lifeboats into the water.
The small boats were half overturned by huge waves the moment they entered the water.
But the crew still jumped into the raging waves like dumplings, grabbed the edge of the boat, and tried their best to turn it over. Then they climbed up, took off the oars buckled in the cabin, inserted them into the buckles on the side of the boat, and balanced the boat like a water strider.
Seeing one boat full, the officers on the Tempo cut the ropes of one boat so they could row to the nearest rescue boat.
Strong winds, huge waves and heavy snow made the rescue extremely difficult, but the rescue crew still focused on rescuing every comrade on board with extremely high professionalism and fearless spirit.
When they saw a boat approaching, they dropped all the life buoys with ropes attached. The crew members on the boat jumped into the water and swam to the nearest life buoy and grabbed it tightly.
The people on the boat pulled together, like fishing for a tuna, and quickly pulled the man onto the boat and onto the deck. Then they pulled another one...
Amid the huge waves, rescue crew members were thrown off the boat from time to time and fell into the water, becoming targets waiting for rescue.
The people on the boat were not affected at all. They just concentrated on pulling in their comrades one after another.
The rescue lasted for more than an hour, and most of the crew members of the Tianbao had been rescued.
On the Tianbao, most of the crew members had also disembarked, leaving only the captain, the first mate and several key police officers.
They conducted a final check on the ship to see if there were any crew members who had not been able to escape in time due to injury, coma or other reasons.
In the second-floor cabin that was already leaking water, a crew member who had been knocked unconscious was found. The captain quickly carried him on his back and stumbled to the ladder. The people beside him pulled him up and down, struggling to get the two men onto the deck.
They were about to stand up and rush to the last lifeboat, but they heard a sudden cry of surprise from the neighboring boat!
A huge wave twice as tall as the ship came up and hit the already tilted hull of the Tianbao with terrifying force...
All the people on the deck were thrown into the sea.
"Swim away!" the crew members shouted heartbreakingly, "The boat is going to capsize!"
The huge figure of the Tianbao was seen capsizing on the sea in an irreversible posture, seemingly slowly but actually rapidly, splashing huge columns of water!
Several people who fell into the water swam away desperately, and a few others seemed to have fainted and were thrown directly under the boat, motionless, and it was obvious that they would not survive...
The crew had no time to grieve, they had to seize the time and continue rescuing survivors.
In the cold sea water, the human body will quickly lose temperature...
ps. The next chapter will be in a quarter of an hour.