Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

In reality, wind-powered battleships occasionally utilize this arc-shaped formation for attacks.

However, due to the slow adjustment of angles on sailing ships, once an arc formation is established, transitioning to a line formation would take significant time to reorganize.

Therefore, unless their side holds an absolute advantage, wind-powered battleships generally engage in battle using line formations.

Steamships, with their agility, are free from such concerns—skilled sailors can complete formation transitions in mere minutes, enabling them to use the optimal attack method with ease.

This was precisely why Burn felt the firepower of the French warships was excessively fierce.

Under the close-range harassment by the French warships, ships like the “Four-Wheeled Carriage” endured a full seven to eight minutes of cannon shells without escaping the enemy’s fire range.

Hossem finally lost his patience.

Although losing a few cruisers and escort ships was not a major issue, those small French ships were practically ganging up on his vessels under his nose—a blatant and humiliating insult!

Suppressing his anger, he ordered the Order Officer: “Hoist the flag, shift the battle line eastward, and prepare to launch an offensive against the enemy fleet.”

In the distant sea, the British cruiser “White Coral” appeared to have been struck in its magazine and erupted into fierce flames. Sailors wailed as they leaped into the water, forming a circle of raindrop-like ripples around the ship.

The “Four-Wheeled Carriage” and “Quartz Sand” were both severely damaged, beginning to tilt, while several other ships sustained varying degrees of damage and hovered motionless, virtually losing maneuverability.

Only two oar and sail ships at the rear of the formation managed to narrowly escape the battle.

In barely ten minutes, more than half of the British cruiser formation dispatched to disrupt the French fleet’s formation had been lost—a rate of destruction so high it would have been textbook material during the era of wind-powered battleships.

Meanwhile, the British battleship formation, sails fully extended, charged ferociously toward the French warships.

Hossem gazed out at the enemy fleet through the porthole, silently calculating in his mind.

2000 yards.

1500 yards.

1200 yards.

Just as he was about to order preparations for engagement, he noticed the French flagship hoisting signal flags.

A fleet of over thirty small ships instantly accelerated with astonishing efficiency, turned around, and scrambled northwestward in chaos.

Their speed was like that of hyenas gleefully retreating after stealing food from a lion.

By the time the British battle line reached to support ships like the “Four-Wheeled Carriage,” the sea was left with nothing but sprawling white wake trails and the faint scent of coal smoke lingering in the air—the French ships had already retreated over one nautical mile.

Two British cruisers and an escort ship were on the brink of sinking, while three others were in dire condition, unlikely to hold out until being towed back to port.

Hossem could feel his anger festering with no outlet. He slammed his fist hard against the wheel stand.

“Damn those French cowards, those spineless weaklings!” he growled through gritted teeth. “Come face me in a real man’s fight!”

In the distance, the French fleet seemed to hear his words. They swiftly circled around and turned back, maintaining their earlier seemingly loose formation, approaching Hossem’s fleet from the north.

As they came closer, Hossem smirked coldly and loudly ordered the battle line to adjust its orientation to move toward the windward position and aim its broadsides at the enemy.

Half an hour later, the French steam warship formation outpaced Hossem’s battle line and took the windward position on the west side first.

The British Commander’s expression began to stiffen.

Initially, his position had been farther west, and the French ships had even detoured northward to avoid him, yet they still managed to reach the windward position first.

He had no choice but to order his formation to tighten up, keeping the bows directed northeast in preparation for the enemy’s assault.

To be honest, he wasn’t afraid of the French fleet attacking.

With the robust hulls of the third-class ships and their 74 heavy cannons, even in unfavorable winds, they could quickly destroy those small French ships.

Then, the French warships made their move.

With the wind at their back, their speed surged to over 12 knots, and in the blink of an eye, they were within 800 yards of the British battle line.

Suddenly, they turned right, and to Hossem’s astonishment, they sped toward the tail end of the British battle line at an incredible pace.

They clearly had no intention of engaging in line-to-line broadsides.

Hossem was momentarily baffled but quickly realized that the French small ships were unlikely to engage in broadsides. He hastily ordered the formation to adjust direction to bring broadsides to bear on the enemy.

Yet the speed of the windward steamships was far beyond what the clunky third- and fourth-class battleships could achieve.

The steamships operated at full power, constantly adjusting their angles, and then brazenly streaked past the southern end of the British battle line in a manner that defied logical combat tactics.

The fourth-level battleship “Coarse Fin Shark” at the southern end tried desperately to turn, but when the French warships passed within 400 yards of her, she still had her stern facing the enemy.

The French cruisers unleashed a barrage of shellfire in a form akin to a reversed “T-head,” or perhaps better called a “T-tail” formation, onto the “Coarse Fin Shark.”

Although each ship only had one chance to fire a broadside, with seven or eight ships attacking consecutively, the stern of “Coarse Fin Shark” turned into a mangled wreck, with even her sternmast severely damaged.

The French fleet showed no desire for prolonged engagement. As the fourth-level ship finally laboriously turned around, the remaining steamships quickly veered away without joining the attack.

Hossem watched as those coal smoke-spewing vessels retreated into the distance. He truly wanted to order a pursuit, but reason told him there was no way his formation’s speed could catch up with them.

His staff reported the damage to “Coarse Fin Shark.”

Fortunately, the damage wasn’t too serious, and she could still fight—however, with her sternmast ruined, her speed might be slightly impacted.

Hossem ordered another ship to take the tail position in the formation while placing “Coarse Fin Shark” in the middle for protection.

Afterward, he saw the French warships spewing black smoke as they ferociously charged back from over a nautical mile away.

At that instant, he was reminded of the hyenas he saw years ago during a hunting trip in Africa.

Each of them was far smaller than a lion, unable to fight one directly. Yet, they consistently disrupted the lion during its meals, leveraging their agility to keep harassing it.

There were countless instances where he witnessed hyenas successfully stealing prey a lion had caught, sometimes even leaving the lion battered and wounded from repeated sneak attacks.

At this moment, the French warships, “howling” as they surged forward, were nothing less than a pack of hyenas.

And he himself was the powerful yet helpless lion…

This time, he ordered three battleships to form a vertical formation to guard the tail of the fleet. But those “hyenas,” after circling around his battle line rapidly multiple times, successfully created gaps and seized the opportunity to launch a “T-head attack” on the “Caesar.”

After crippling the “Caesar’s” bow diagonal beam, they fled once again.

It wasn’t until nightfall that the French fleet ceased its harassment, continuing southeastward until it gradually vanished beyond the horizon.