Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 60 Entanglement
When the bright red sun suddenly plunged below the sea level, the whole sky and earth immediately became dim. A few rays of afterglow cast the last bit of light, setting off the sparkling sea water, showing a rare tenderness.

Captain Jose of the "Maria" looked at the pirate ship behind him. It seemed that he had not given up yet. He continued to spread the sails and kept approaching them with a sarcastic smile on his face.

It's getting dark soon, you despicable pirates have no chance!

In fact, being a pirate in the Pacific is not a smart choice.

It's not because the Pacific Ocean is so vast, but because there are too few merchant ships for pirates to hijack, and there are not many opportunities to make a fortune.

You know, not every pirate has Drake's incredible luck.

Although there were many Spanish merchant ships traveling in the Pacific Ocean, the vast majority of ships sailed along the coastline of the American continent.

Moreover, in order to deal with brutal pirate attacks, treasure ships carrying gold and silver would generally form a fleet of several ships to gather a strong enough force to fight against the pirates.

Even if a lone merchant ship encounters pirates and is unable to fight them, it will flee to a port on the Pacific coast as quickly as possible, and then rely on the powerful firepower of the port's artillery to repel the pirates' attack.

Looking back at the treasure ships that were looted by English pirates over the decades, it is not difficult to find that it was not that the pirates were really powerful, but that the Spaniards were too arrogant and too proud, and had no vigilance at all, and were finally successfully attacked by the pirate ships using extremely clumsy methods.

On March 1579, 3, the treasure ship "Cacafugo" was intercepted by the English pirate Drake. The pirate naively thought that the other party was an ordinary Spanish merchant ship, allowed the other party to approach, and then was attacked.

1587年11月4日，遇袭的“圣安娜号”是一艘满载排水量达七百吨的马尼拉大帆船，竟然被两艘分别为120吨和60吨的“小舢板”给意外的劫持了。

Can you imagine?
The "Santa Anna" had clearly discovered the two small pirate ships long ago, but relying on its own huge size, it did not take the other party seriously at all, thinking that the other party would not dare to launch an attack like an ant biting an elephant.

The result is predictable. The English pirates, dazzled by wealth, relied on their perseverance and fearless courage to launch the most resolute and brave attack on the "Santa Anna", which was several times larger than themselves.

In more than six hours of bloody battle, the English pirates successfully broke the Spanish sailors' determination to resist and took possession of the Manila galleon, which was loaded with precious goods and gold and silver from the East.

However, it would be extremely difficult for pirates to intercept a Spanish merchant ship in the Pacific Ocean far away from the mainland.

Not to mention that it was impossible to find a tiny merchant ship in the vast ocean. Even if the pirates were lucky enough to accidentally collide with a Spanish merchant ship, they might not be able to successfully capture it.

As long as the merchant ship is alert enough and the lookout is dedicated enough, usually they will not let the pirate ship get close to them easily and will definitely flee to the depths of the ocean.

As long as it gets to night, the pirate ship will lose its target and can only sigh and leave in frustration.

It would be quite difficult to find the hijacked target again at sea at dawn the next day.

Jose is an experienced captain and an extremely cautious old sailor.

When they discovered that the strange-shaped pirate ship was attacking their fleet, they immediately issued an evacuation order, letting the three large sailing ships flee in different directions, making it difficult for the enemy to choose a target.

At the same time, he ordered all the crew members to do their best, regardless of the predetermined course, and adjust all the sails to the best wind-catching position to speed up the ship.

Admittedly, the speed of that pirate ship was still much higher than theirs, but as long as their "Maria" could perform at its best, delaying the distance between the two sides as much as possible, and then dragging the time until night, they would be able to successfully escape the other side's pursuit.

Now, the sun has set, and there is less than an hour left until it is completely dark.

Then, as long as we deal with the pirate ship for a while and prevent it from approaching the side, we can escape from the tiger's mouth under the cover of night.

"boom!"

The pirate ship finally caught up at around 7:30 in the evening.

From a distance, the pirates fired a cannonball at the Maria, trying to intimidate them with force, demanding that they lower the sails and stop the ship and surrender voluntarily.

Jose was not moved at all by this, and still calmly ordered the sailors to continue working to keep the ship moving fast.

At such a long distance, artillery cannot pose any threat at all.

Sure enough, the shell landed on the sea surface a few hundred meters behind the "Maria", causing a huge wave.

"Boys, hold on a little longer! ... It's almost dark!" Captain Jose shouted to encourage the sailors. "Those despicable pirates will watch helplessly as we disappear into the night. They might jump in frustration, pull their hair out in frustration, or even wail pitifully. They will gain nothing and can only drift in vain on the sea until they are swept to the bottom of the sea by a storm."

"Haha..., let them all eat my shit!" "...Damn pirates, they can't even get close to us."

"Oh oh..., it's getting dark, you son of a bitch, isn't it time for you to go home to your mother?"

"..."

The sailors followed the instructions, climbed on the sail spire, and constantly adjusted the sails, while cursing and joking loudly, venting their anger and contempt for the pirates who were chasing them closely.

"boom!"

As the distance between the two ships closed to more than 300 meters, the pirate ship fired another cannonball, which landed far to the starboard side of the "Maria".

In response, the sailors once again mocked and ridiculed him.

In the rough sea, if a gunner wants to accurately focus on the target at a distance of more than 300 meters, he must be a lucky man chosen by God himself.

Besides, this is not a salvo of dozens of artillery pieces, so there is no need to worry too much.

At this time, the last bright color in the sky had faded, and the whole earth fell into a dark world. Only the sea water illuminated by the starlight was shimmering with ripples.

If we hold on a little longer, the pirate ship won't be able to see us anymore!

"boom!"

Another shell hit, and this time it seemed to land very close to the "Maria", and the splashing sea water fell on the deck.

This gave the sailors a chill.

This damn pirate ship runs so fast!

Looking closely, a dark shadow seemed to be approaching them, as if it would pounce on them and swallow them all in the next moment.

"Turn right!"

“…Turn right!”

"Half sail down the mizzen!"

"...half sail down the mizzen!"

"Main sail to the southeast!"

"... Mainsail adjusted to the southeast!"

"..."

Captain Jose issued a series of orders, trying his best to turn the ship to the west to avoid the rapid attack of the pirate ship behind.

If the other party gets angry and wants to use the huge hull to hit us, that would be very bad.

In this ocean, any damage to the ship will cause a huge disaster.

As the "Maria" turned rapidly, a huge black shadow was vaguely seen flying past the right side of the ship, and then quickly disappeared into the dark night.

"Maintain course and travel at maximum speed."

"As you command, Mr. Captain."

"It's getting dark." Captain Jose breathed a sigh of relief and made the sign of the cross on his chest. "Oh, God bless us. I think we have finally escaped that pirate ship!"

(End of this chapter)