Chapter 1192: Tromp, Truly Reliable (Happy New Year, Please Subscribe)

Cornelis van Tromp was the second son of Maarten Tromp, the renowned Dutch naval commander—a man who could truly be described as "great." The Battle of the Downs in 1639 was Maarten Tromp's masterpiece.

After shattering Spain's maritime supremacy, Maarten Tromp went on to wage a desperate struggle against the mighty English navy in the First Anglo-Dutch War.

At first, Maarten Tromp performed brilliantly, twice defeating the famed English admiral Robert Blake. But in their third encounter, Blake employed his own invention—the line-of-battle tactic—and brought Maarten Tromp's era to an end. That battle took place in February 1653 and is known to history as the Battle of Portland or the Three Days' Battle. Six months after that engagement, Maarten Tromp was killed in action at the Battle of Scheveningen.

Yet the Tromp family's naval career did not end with Maarten Tromp's death. Not long after his father's passing, Maarten's second son, Cornelis van Tromp, was promoted from naval captain to rear admiral, and later sailed to the Baltic Sea to take part in the naval battles of the First Northern War between Poland and Sweden.

When the Dutch East India Company sent urgent appeals to the homeland because the Ming Empire was pressing ever closer in the Southern Seas, the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt, who held the reins of power, first thought of this "second-generation famed admiral," known for his love of fierce combat. He appointed him commander of the East India Fleet, with unified command over all Dutch naval forces in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In addition, Grand Pensionary de Witt handed over to Cornelis van Tromp three of the world's most powerful ships of the line (the Dutch would never admit that England's Protector-class was stronger): the Seven Provinces, the States of Holland, and the States of Zeeland, sending this rear admiral with them to deal with the naval fleet of that Celestial Empire in the East.

When he departed the Dutch homeland aboard the Seven Provinces, Cornelis van Tromp was still full of confidence.

After all, the Celestial Empire of the East was merely a student of the Dutch in naval matters—their skill at sailing soft-sailed ships on long voyages had been taught to them hand in hand by Dutch naval officers!

However, when Tromp met Captain David Jones of the States of Zeeland (which had originally been deployed in the Mediterranean and so had not set out with Tromp) at Batavia, his confidence in certain victory began to waver.

According to David Jones, if not for the bomb vessels, the Dutch navy's superiority over the Ming navy would indeed be unshakeable.

But with the variable of the bomb vessels, the Dutch navy's leading position was no longer so secure.

Because the "bomb vessel revolution" had actually occurred within the Ming navy!

It was the Ming navy that first used explosive shells on warships, and it was the Ming shipyards that first began designing bomb-vessel ships of the line.

Although constrained by the relatively backward Ming shipbuilding technology, the Ming navy's bomb vessels were lighter in tonnage and slower in speed, but the bomb guns mounted on these vessels and the explosive shells they fired were not one bit inferior to those used by the Dutch fleet!

So the Ming's bomb-vessel ships of the line were equally deadly weapons—and there were so many of them.

It was precisely after considering David Jones's opinion that Rear Admiral Tromp abandoned the idea of fighting a pitched battle with inferior forces and instead sought an opportunity for a surprise attack.

After he had led his fleet in concealment at the mouth of the Klang River for nearly a month, a swift Dutch warship finally brought him good news.

The Shun Empire and the Kingdom of Arakan had at last concluded an alliance, and the latter had dispatched 300 oared galleys to carry fifteen thousand Shun army troops for a landing at Penang Island and the nearby territory belonging to the Sultan of Kedah.

In the commander's cabin aboard the Seven Provinces, Tromp once again took out the handwritten letter from Bruas van Diemen and looked at the date on it—it had been sent six days earlier.

In the letter, Bruas told Tromp that Arakan's 300 oared galleys had already arrived at the port of Syriam, and that within two days at most, all fifteen thousand Shun troops would be able to board.

In other words, the troop transports should have departed four days ago; if all had gone smoothly, they should have reached Penang Island by now.

As long as they could draw the Ming forces in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, the situation should still be rather favorable for the Dutch!

Just as he was thinking this, the voice of one of his adjutants suddenly came from outside the door: "Rear Admiral, Captain Jones has just come aboard, and he brings urgent military dispatches!"

"What?" Tromp was taken aback. What was going on? The States of Zeeland, aboard which David Jones served, was anchored in the roadstead inside the mouth of the Klang River. Even if a dispatch vessel came in, it could not possibly pass the Seven Provinces to report to the States of Zeeland!

"Admiral! It's David!" David Jones's voice already carried in. "We've just received an urgent report from Johor—a massive Ming fleet is sailing south along the eastern coast of the Malay Peninsula and is very likely to enter the Strait!"

Tromp could no longer sit still. He hurriedly rose and pulled open the cabin door, and there stood David Jones, drenched in sweat.

"Come in, quickly!" Tromp ushered David Jones into the cabin. "How did you get this news?"

"It was sent by our advisors stationed in Johor, who dispatched riders with the message—that's why it was delivered to the States of Zeeland first!" As he spoke, David Jones handed the letter to the rear admiral.

Tromp hastily unfolded the letter, first skimming through it at a glance, then reading it carefully once more, a look of puzzlement appearing on his face.

"What is a 'bird ship'?" Tromp asked.

"A type of Ming-style hard-sailed vessel," David Jones said. "The largest bird ships are only five or six hundred tons in carrying capacity. Because they use hard sails, the sail area is limited and their speed is very slow. These vessels are usually civilian, but there are also military models—most are transports, though some have been fitted with bomb guns and can be used for naval combat."

"Do you know what size of bomb guns these bird ships can mount?" Tromp asked.

"The largest they've mounted is around a 28-pounder (24 jin) bomb gun," David Jones replied. "But later the Chinese acquired the Yingtian Prefecture-class, and no longer needed large bird ships as the mainstay of naval battle. Moreover, the recoil from a 28-pounder when firing was too great and could cause structural damage to a large bird ship's hull. So they replaced the 28-pounders with 18-pounders and also redesigned the gun decks, allowing a 'ten-thousand-dan' type large bird ship to carry twelve to fourteen 18-pounder bomb guns."

"An 18-pounder should not easily penetrate the gun deck of a Seven Provinces-class ship!" Tromp said. "At least before we smash these large bird ships to pieces with our 40- or 36-pounders, their 18-pounders cannot penetrate the gun deck of a Seven Provinces-class ship!"

If the barrel lengths were roughly the same, then the penetrating power of an 18-pounder shell should indeed be inferior to that of a 36- or 40-pounder!

And the Seven Provinces-class had been designed with the destructive power of bomb guns in mind, so its gun-deck armor had been reinforced, making it impossible for 18-pounder shells to penetrate the gun deck of a States-class ship at longer ranges.

"Admiral," David Jones had already grasped Tromp's thinking, "if there are no Yingtian Prefecture-class ships, then victory is certain!"

"There's no way there are none," Tromp said. "The only question is how many. If I'm not mistaken, they intend to land somewhere within the Strait of Malacca! Those bird ships must be carrying many soldiers—how could there possibly be no Yingtian Prefecture-class escort?"

"Admiral, should we then sortie as soon as possible to prevent the Chinese from landing?" David Jones said. "Their army is far superior to the forces of those sultans!"

"No," Tromp shook his head. "Let us observe further. If it really is a landing, then we should strike after the landing operation has begun. Because a fleet in the middle of carrying out a landing cannot maneuver effectively."

"Besides, we must also determine exactly how many Yingtian Prefecture-class ships there are. If there are too many, then we cannot be certain of victory!"

(End of Chapter)