Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 520 The Glorious Battle of the Gulf of Finland (Part 032)

Since the Swedes were surrendering, Krona was determined to have the frigates, led by the Flora, monitor these Swedish warships. Anyway, most of them had lost their ability to sail due to the fierce Russian artillery fire. Given the weather in the Baltic Sea, it was unlikely that they would all be sunk as soon as they came up.

After all, that kind of wind doesn't often appear after a naval battle.

The main confrontation now became the two battleships of the Royal Navy and the eight battleships and eight frigates of the Baltic Fleet.
Although it sounds a bit strange, it is a very obvious situation. To be honest, the positions of the two British warships were not good. After the "Grace" turned, it happened to face the retreat routes of the "Centaur" and the "Ruthless".

Little Hood could not count on the main force of the Royal Navy to join him here. The fleet led by the "Victory" would not be able to arrive in this water area until tomorrow at the earliest, and then there would be joint patrols and maritime blockades.

Then, the Swedish Navy pulled a fight, but was quickly defeated by the Russians in one hour and twenty-two minutes, which was only enough for the Russian large battleships to have an opening warm-up.

Young Samuel Hood was facing an embarrassing situation. If he had not sought a battle all the way and chased the Russian frigate here, he would not have joined such an unfortunate battle group. Although there was an order for the two armies to merge, to be honest, they did carry out Sir Sumares's order.

If there had been telegraphs in this era, things wouldn't have been so embarrassing. But of course, it would have been useless, as the Royal Navy has always been poor at signal science.

Now, the only thing the two British battleships could do was to escape. If the Russians chased them, they would try to head in the direction of Sumarez.

This kind of fishing is probably a tradition of the Royal Navy. However, Kron is also from the Royal Navy. As a former frigate captain, he would not fall for this kind of fishing method.

"We either have to destroy these two British ships now, or we can stop pursuing them. However, given this route, we will definitely have to fight them, and we may even have to use the Marines."

"If you want to join the Marine Corps, Robert, you should leave it to me! Although I have never been to the front, I am very familiar with commanding infantry."

By the way, Solovyov also patted the holster on his waist, which contained two six-shooter revolvers. In addition, he also had a breech-loading paper shell rifle on his back.

"I do trust you on this, but you have to be careful. You are only sent here to monitor, and there are only marines on this ship."

"But we have to be able to board the ship! What do you think we should do?"

"Well!"

Crown then conveyed an order to use four larger battleships to cut off the retreat of the two British ships. The four battleships turned to form an angle, and the remaining eight frigates fully supported the "Frocheward".

After a hard battle, Rudnev discovered that the British had escaped, but he had no ability to pursue them. They had managed to refuse to surrender for such a long time, and even persisted until all the masts were broken and the artillery on one side was almost completely lost. For a Type 74 battleship that was already an outdated model, this was already not easy.

All he could do now was to wait for the two frigates to come over for cover, and then he would use this opportunity to plug the holes in his ship that were made by the British.

Hood's troubles had just begun. When the "Grace" began to approach, he realized something.

"Damn it! We can still meet a 'Trinity' in the Baltic Sea. We didn't make it to Trafalgar, but we are going to become a target here!"

Well, the Centaur was delayed halfway and ultimately failed to make it to the Battle of Trafalgar.

As for the "Relentless", its shape shows that it is a French ship and a trophy captured by the Royal Navy at Trafalgar.

This is thanks to the legendary coward at sea, the master of escape, Admiral Villeneuve. Even in Kron's eyes, even someone like Solovyov who didn't know how to fight a naval battle and only knew how to fire cannons and board ships, and the army general who served as the supervisory team, knew that fighting at sea was all about wind direction, T-heads and circles, as well as navigation skills and battlefield coordination, rather than being a master of escape.

Now if the British want to escape, they also need to fight a war.

The Royal Navy always performs well when things are going well or in a stalemate, but when things get tough, bad things can happen.

When Nelson was shot by the French, it was because the clumsy sailors on the deck of the "Victory" were beaten and fled by the flintlock musketeers brought by the French on the warship, forcing Nelson to come out in person to boost morale. Then it was the familiar plot, drinking as much as you can after the death.

In this desperate situation, the British sailors naturally have problems.

After all, since the time of Peter the Great, the Russian Navy has always learned from the British, even learning the Royal Navy's dirty trick of conscripting men and searching for sailors.

But at this time, an abstract and strange problem arises, that is, if the British sailors’ officers are killed, they may surrender. Even if there are more legendary commanders on board, they can dig a big hole in adversity.

Now, Hood discovered this situation, but he didn't have any better solution. He could only hold on like this. At least he could hold on when the ship's guns didn't fire at him. Also, the sailors on the "Centaur" still had some sense of shame, and the fleet commander and the captain wouldn't be too angry.

As for the "Ruthless", that is not necessarily the case.

After all, this ship, with its captured men, has not been in service for a long time like the "Centaur". If it encounters an adverse situation, something is bound to happen.

Especially when the three ships "Grace", "Warrior" and "Gabriel" came together, and the "Gabriel" was a copy of the "Victory", Captain Martin felt a headache when looking at these enemy and friendly forces copied by the Russians. As for when he gave the order, his own sailors were not in time and were sent to the muzzle of the "Gabriel".

The "Gabriel" naturally accepted the attack from this opponent who came right to its doorstep, and since there were only two British ships left on the battlefield, there was no need to consider anything else. It just focused all the shells and gunners on one side and fired fiercely, and by the way, it could also create a burst reload or something, and thus fired at the "Ruthless" at an extremely high rate of fire.

Martin was watching on the deck in astonishment, and then he was injured by the debris, so he was carried away by his adjutant and secretary.

Afterwards, the sailors on the "Ruthless" thought that their commander was dead and quickly lost their combat effectiveness. When their officers were injured one after another, they gave up resistance and chose to surrender.

Solovyov, who was confused, thought he was on a French warship after seeing it, and he was somewhat influenced by this habit.
In fact, this is not the case, because the sailors of the Royal Navy will indeed choose to surrender when their superiors suffer heavy casualties. In contrast, although the army is whipped on a daily basis, they will not be so scared when fighting, and they can still fight for a while even if their superiors are killed.

As for the Russians, although they also learned the Royal Navy's method of conscripting men, the Russians are not afraid of death, which just shows that their technical level is relatively poor.

Even now, the "Frosheward" is in that state and has to run aground nearby, waiting for the frigate to tow it away. Some sailors are swimming actively, either choosing to go ashore on their own or to replenish friendly warships. Other navies should not have such initiative.

Even if this warship was defeated by the British today, or even captured, there might still be sailors who jumped off the ship and found a way to get ashore. Now the situation is even worse for the Centaur. Although the ship can still maintain its combat effectiveness, the opponent it has to fight is far stronger than them. Even if it is singled out, there are still four warships that are stronger than itself.
However, Samuel Hood Jr. still wanted to make a last-ditch effort, jump out of the route of the "Grace" and escape, but Kron would not give him this opportunity.

Even Kron's final choice was just like what he did on the Mercury and Venus. He wanted to take the initiative to force the Centaur to stop, and was even prepared to fire a volley at the Centaur's face at close range, and send the Marines to board and fight.

What's even more unfavorable to the Centaur is that the speed of the Speedy is indeed as its name suggests, and it is now advancing at full sail.

This made Hood regret his decision. The frigate was very close to the Centaur. He should have fired a salvo at the frigate at that time, otherwise it would not have been so embarrassing.

The "Speedy" was indeed now cutting into the "Centaur"'s route. In addition, the "Tragedy" had just dared to take the initiative to force a Swedish battleship to surrender, which also greatly boosted the morale of the frigates.

These captains of the Russian Navy are as reckless as the British. With the addition of a Scotsman like Crown, the situation of the Centaur is now very bad.

You know, now the Russians have raised the D flag again, which means "be careful to avoid", but it is obvious that they are prepared to use the tactics of ramming and boarding at the risk of their lives.

It seems that the "Centaur" really can't escape today. After avoiding the collision of the "Speedy", this battleship can only bite the bullet and fight against the "Grace" and "Warrior".

First, hundreds of naval guns fired at the same time, and soon severely damaged the "Centaur". The damage to the stern was particularly severe. Kron ordered that only solid bullets be used in the entire naval battle, and the effect was particularly obvious.

Hood himself knew very well that he could not escape today, and now he also saw that the Russians were even preparing to organize sailors and marines to board the ship and fight, so he could not escape this time.

If he was prepared to fight, his disability of having one arm missing would naturally not be of much use.

When the Russian warships had squeezed his ship into a very small space for movement, Samuel Hood Jr. finally chose to surrender.

But it was not shameful to surrender like this. After all, his was the only warship left on the sea that could still fight. Even if all the officers of the "Ruthless" had not been sent to the infirmary, they would not be able to escape.

As for the current condition of the "Centaur", it did not take in water, but the casualties on board were quite large, and the Russian army needs to allocate some sailors to take over the ship.

By the way, the Russian Navy also conscripted men, so these British sailors did not have to return to Britain for the time being.

Either they would be sent back to Britain when the two sides exchanged prisoners, or they would do odd jobs in the Port of Hanko or that port. Although the Russians' finances have always been tight, they still paid their salaries.

But Solovyov will have to continue to feel embarrassed for a while. After all, the Russian sailors, like the veteran soldiers in the army, are mostly illiterate.

"Master, look at this one-armed guy. Have we caught Nelson?"

Then word spread among the sailors that we had captured Nelson.

"No, I know the Prince of Wales of the United Kingdom. The British Crown Prince is a friend of Nelson. Nelson was killed in a naval battle three years ago. He should be in the coffin now."

Then he began asking questions in an accent that was familiar to Hood.

"Who are you, General?"

"I am Rear Admiral Samuel Hood, commander of the Royal Navy Squadron, and this warship is the Royal Navy's 'Centaur' battleship."

"What's your last name? I think you should tell me again."

"Rear Admiral Samuel Hood, Commander of the Royal Navy Squadron."

"Who is Admiral Samuel Hood to you?"

"My uncle."

Well. It seems that this is still a big fish. However, some sailors who heard "Hood" were even more excited, especially since Samuel Hood Jr. happened to have the same name as the admiral.

"Tell the brothers to stop making a fuss. This Hood is not the Hood they imagined. The admiral is too old to go to sea. He is now either in the botanical garden or in the zoo."

"What are you talking about, sir?"

"That's it. You'll have a chance to find out later."

By the way, Solovyov also asked Hood.

"General, is there any problem with your ship's ammunition magazine?"

"Why do you ask? When we lowered the flag, there was no problem with the ammunition on board."

"I'm just a little worried. Two hours ago I saw a Swedish battleship being blown to pieces, but the force of the explosion was probably not as strong as that of the Vostok."

It was very unusual for an army to appear here, but Hood was treated kindly now that he had surrendered, after all, he was still a rear admiral.

However, for the main force of the Royal Navy, they arrived at the scene too late.

Kronor knew when to quit, and after inspecting the battlefield environment, he towed the captured warships to the port of Hanko. Even if the Royal Navy was squatting at the gate and holding an armed parade, it could not change the glorious victory of the Russian Navy in the Battle of the Gulf of Finland.

(End of this chapter)