Chapter 1199: A Cannonball Stuck in the Rear (Please Subscribe)

Nothing will go wrong!

It definitely can't punch through!

Tromp and David Jones both heard the sound of the cannonball striking the ship's planking, and both men's hearts seized up for a moment, but reason immediately told them that the sturdy Zeeland could surely hold!

If the Chinese were pounding the Zeeland's vitals with thirty-pound shot, the two of them would not have been so confident, but eighteen-pounders would certainly be no problem — unless the Lord stood on the Chinese side today. In a sea battle, luck still counted for a great deal! If the Chinese were lucky enough, a shot might even fly straight into a gun deck!

However, if the two men could have climbed outside the stern of the Zeeland and taken a look just then, they would not have been nearly so calm, because embedded in the stern of that poor ship of the line, on the outer side of No. 7 gun deck, was a fifteen-catty explosive shell!

A cannonball stuck right in its rear — if this warship could speak, it would surely be howling in pain right now!

"Boom!"

A tremendous report, and the whole warship shuddered several times — but this was not the Zeeland's rear blowing up. Rather, the Zeeland's No. 1 gun deck had fired the opening shot: a forty-pound wooden-sabot explosive shell howled through the air, flying toward the Wuhan Prefecture over a thousand yards away.

The shell's flight was not especially fast, so much so that the naked eye could still catch a small black dot streaking outward at extreme speed. Tromp and David Jones hastily followed it with their eyes, but before they could see the shell hit the water (it had gone wide as well), the warship beneath their feet suddenly gave a violent shudder, and then another roar!

What was going on?

The two Dutch naval officers were somewhat dazed by the sudden shock and roar. What was going on? Why was it so loud? It was not the sound of a gun firing — could it be a barrel bursting?

In fact it was not a barrel bursting, but the rear blowing up!

The fuse of the fifteen-catty explosive shell lodged in the Zeeland's stern had just burned out, igniting the black powder packed inside the shell. Although the deflagration of black powder could not compare with the power of high explosive, the force produced by five or six catties of quite well-refined black powder was still more than oak planking could withstand. Under the enormous impact, oak planking over a foot thick shattered on the spot, turning into countless tiny splinters that howled through the cramped gun deck. The soldiers of the two gun crews inside had nowhere to hide, and were struck bloody and mangled by the flying splinters — they died on the spot before they could even cry out!

But this was only the beginning of the Zeeland's disaster. Even more terrifying explosions were still to come!

Because when the explosive shell lodged in the Zeeland's stern had detonated, a forty-pounder in No. 7 gun deck had just finished loading and had not yet been fired. Now all fourteen gunners in No. 7 gun deck (although there were two guns, only one gun crew was in place, fourteen men in all) were dead, and there was no one left to fire the gun. They could only wait for the forty-pound shell to explode inside the barrel.

This would be a great explosion that could take half the Zeeland's life! Not long after the starboard forty-pounders in the Zeeland's No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 gun decks had finished firing, the terrible explosion struck the stern of the Zeeland once again.

This explosion was on an entirely different level from the last one — a forty-pound explosive shell! The enormous blast turned the barrel of the forty-pounder wrapped around it into a bomb casing, shattering the whole thing.

Carried by the blast wave, the fragments of the forty-pounder slammed violently into the oak bulkheads on both sides. The oak bulkheads could not withstand it either and were instantly smashed open with a great hole. The shattered wood once again became lethal weapons, sweeping through the neighboring No. 6 gun deck and killing or wounding more than half of the fourteen gunners inside. Although the blast of a forty-pound shell was powerful, it had not gone off directly against the oak planking, so there was no shaped-charge effect, and its casualties in No. 6 gun deck were actually less severe than those caused by the fifteen-catty shell.

But the damage this forty-pound shell did to the Zeeland's hull was far worse. It not only completely wrecked No. 6 gun deck, but also blew a great hole in the deck of No. 7 gun deck and punched through the bulkhead on the other side of No. 7 gun deck. Below No. 7 gun deck was No. 7 magazine, piled full of forty-pound explosive shells and powder bags!

Fortunately, the Dutch had also learned the Ming navy's "water-bottle firefighting method." Before the battle began, they had placed the explosive shells and powder bags together with porcelain bottles filled with seawater and stoppered at the mouth, so when the forty-pound shell exploded and shattered many of the porcelain bottles, the seawater that flowed out soaked the shells and powder, averting a catastrophic explosion in time.

On the other side of No. 7 gun deck was the officers' galley, where dinner was being prepared with stoves lit and fires burning. When the oak wall was blown through, several of the cooks inside died on the spot, and the rest abandoned their cooking and fled, clutching their heads — without putting out the stoves. As a result, a fire began to spread from that small officers' galley.

On the Zeeland's stern deck, chaos reigned at that moment as well. The violent explosion and shock from below had knocked everyone to the deck.

Tromp and David Jones were also somewhat stunned. What in the world was going on? How had it exploded all at once? Was it an accident, or had an eighteen-pound shot punched through the gun deck? Which shipyard had built this ship? Surely they hadn't cut corners?

Because explosive shells were now carried aboard, the bombardment ships all had command platforms surrounded by sandbags. The Dutch warships' command platforms were at the stern, while the Ming navy's warships had theirs at the bow.

Holding onto the sandbags of the command platform, David Jones climbed to his feet first. He looked around. The ship of the line was still sailing on, and there were no signs of hits on the upper deck, though thick smoke was pouring out from the starboard side. Barring the unexpected, some gun deck must have been knocked out!

"Damn it — go see what happened!" he shouted at a young officer with a panicked face who had just scrambled up. "Go check No. 7 gun deck!"

"Yes, Colonel!"

The man went off tumbling and crawling. At that moment David Jones saw Tromp being helped to his feet, one hand braced on his waist — who knew whether he had been hurt in the fall?

"David, what in the world happened?" Tromp roared the moment he saw David Jones — How do you teach your students! Look at your student using an eighteen-pounder to punch through gun-deck planking that thick!

"I, I—" David Jones also looked thoroughly wronged. He had no idea what had happened either. It must have been bad luck? Perhaps it really had hit the gunport of No. 7 gun deck?

Just then, another roar of an exploding shell rang out — but it was not the Zeeland blowing up. Rather, a five-hundred-ton warship following behind the Zeeland had exploded.

"An-another one..." David Jones's face had turned green.

Once was luck, but twice meant there had to be something inevitable about it — and they could both hit gunports? How absurdly lucky would those gunners have to be! If they were that lucky, why were they still gunners?

The Ming must have developed some new kind of ammunition specifically designed to punch through the thick planking of ships of the line.

"Rear Admiral," David Jones's voice trembled slightly, "I think we have underestimated our opponent! They must—"

"Hooray! Hooray!"

Before David Jones could finish speaking, the sailors on the deck of the Zeeland burst into cheers. It turned out that the Dutch fleet's luck had turned: one of their thirty-pound wooden-sabot explosive shells had struck the tall sterncastle of the Feixiang and exploded inside with a great blast. The sterncastles of Western-style warships were generally the quarters of officers and sailors, and were not considered vital. Taking a few solid shot or even heated incendiary shot there would not have mattered much, but a thirty-pound explosive shell was another matter entirely. In one blow it blew the Feixiang's stern to pieces and, in passing, set something alight. The Feixiang was soon trailing smoke from her rear, ending up in the same state as the Zeeland.

"Rear Admiral, we—" David Jones withdrew his gaze and was about to urge Tromp to break off the action, but he saw the rear admiral wave a hand at him.

"Colonel, it is now three to one — we hold absolute superiority!" Tromp said. "And we must demonstrate the ability and the resolve to absorb losses. Although the Chinese possess a vast population and wealth, Holland possesses the most merchant ships and sailors in the world!"

(End of Chapter)