Seven Seas Beacon Fire

The Ming army's torpedo attacks were nothing special!

However, when they prepared to use searchlights to look for the next possible torpedo attack by the Ming army, they were surprised to find that the destroyers that had completed the torpedo attack did not turn around and retreat as in the normal battle sequence, but had approached within one nautical mile while they were dodging the torpedoes.

Even without searchlights, they could see the Ming destroyers at this distance, not to mention that some of the ships on these destroyers still had fires burning.

These destroyers have already used up all their torpedoes, what are they going to do next? Do these little things want to engage us in a gun battle? That idea is simply...

Although these damaged destroyers had lost some of their machine guns, the newly installed 40mm single-mounted machine guns were generally small in size, and the chances of them being hit were naturally very small. When these angry and murderous shells burst out, these Federation Navy ships realized that they were now facing a completely different opponent than before.

At a distance of no more than 1500 meters, the Federal Navy discovered that even when facing warships that were smaller or even much smaller than themselves, they did not have a firepower advantage. Under the lash of bullets from the enemy's 40mm autocannons and the continuous suppression from the enemy's 13mm heavy machine guns, the firing of the open gun positions on their destroyers and cruisers was severely affected.

For a time, several federal naval warships were suppressed by the firepower of a group of smaller, older destroyers.

Li Tiansuo has already gained experience. For now, don't worry about the calibers. The chances of those big guns hitting them are not that high, and sometimes even if they do hit, it's just over-penetration. But those small and medium-sized guns, such as 75mm, 57mm, and 47mm, can fire shrapnel shells and have a pretty good rate of fire. These are the guns that pose the greatest threat to them. They need to suppress these small guns as much as possible as soon as possible.

As for how to deal with large-caliber artillery... the answer is to get as close to the enemy ship as possible. The closer you get, the braver you should be, because once you get close enough, you'll find that the enemy's large-caliber artillery has lost its firing arc. At this point, the enemy's large-caliber artillery can't hit you, and the firepower of their small-caliber artillery is far inferior to yours.

The Federal Navy's warships had never seen such a crazy fighting style before; they even thought that these old Ming Dynasty destroyers were going to launch a boarding operation against them.

If that were all, the United States wouldn't be without a countermeasure. Although the enemy, relying on its powerful machine guns, was chipping away at the gun positions of the Federation's outer ships one by one, gradually destroying the gun emplacements on these Federation vessels, even the most powerful small- and medium-caliber machine guns couldn't effectively disrupt the reserve buoyancy of these Federation ships. As for the destroyed gun positions... these were mostly due to the gunners being killed or wounded. The artillery itself was very sturdy, especially cannons with a caliber of 100mm or larger. Unless the shells damaged the hydraulic or elevation mechanisms, simply replacing the gunners would allow the cannons to be put back into service.

While these modified small destroyers could suppress the United States' firepower for a period of time, they were unable to sink the United States' ships quickly—after all, all the torpedoes had already been launched.

At this point, the officers and men on these ships of the United States Navy were already suffering greatly from the state of the battle. But when the searchlights on the masts shone into the distance again, what they saw was a hellish picture that they would never forget in their nightmares for the rest of their lives.

At sea, countless torpedo boats were charging at nearly twice their current speed. For the officers and soldiers of the United States Navy, there was simply no time to figure out how many torpedo boats the enemy had deployed in this wave.

Their efforts to intercept the torpedo boat with the remaining artillery were somewhat futile.

If these small destroyers could barely withstand a few hits, then these torpedo boats are completely unable to withstand any.

Six-inch high-explosive shells don't need to hit directly to severely damage these speedboats, while lower-sized naval guns, whether five-inch or four-inch, can basically take down a speedboat with a single hit.

However, a commander who once hoped someone would be his mother once said, "If you can't hit the target, it's meaningless."

The various large and medium caliber cannons equipped on the warships of the Federation's Seventh Fleet could easily blast those Ming Dynasty torpedo boats to smithereens, let alone beat them to a pulp. Even if they hit the Ming Dynasty's destroyers, which were less than a thousand tons, they would at least be enough to make those elementary school kids look like bruises.

But all of this is on the premise that you can actually hit the target.

The result is quite obvious – these torpedo boats are not like those old-fashioned destroyers. Although these little things are smaller, they often carry new 500mm or 550mm heavy torpedoes.

Anyone who has played games knows what happens when, in an FPS game, the two sides are locked in close-quarters combat and a group of new soldiers wielding shotguns suddenly join the battle.

Moreover, unlike the 450mm torpedoes with insufficient range, these heavy torpedoes have a much longer range.

"boom!"

At 3:10 a.m., the USS Virginia, a U.S. Navy battleship, was hit by a torpedo.

Chapter Seventy-Six: Torpedo Night

How vulnerable are the kings of the sea in the previous era to the torpedoes of the new era?

After the USS Virginia was hit by a torpedo on the side of its bow turret, this part of the ship, which has the largest and best-protected anti-torpedo compartment in the entire warship, was hit by a 220 kg warhead filled with a mixture of 60% TNT and 40% hexanitrodiphenylamine in block form. This highly shock-resistant charge had an explosive power greater than a 100% TNT charge.

The violent explosion not only tore open the underwater hull of the USS Virginia, but also completely blew through the TDS (Torpedo Protection System). The 1.5-inch soft steel at the bottom of the hull was of a lower quality than the high-elasticity steel used in the TDS of modern new-generation warships. Moreover, this old-fashioned battleship did not even have such soft steel underwater torpedo protection armor laid continuously.

Thus, the shockwave from the explosion, carrying fragments, made its way into the main ammunition depot at the front.

Older ships like the Virginia naturally don't have brass protective sleeves or water-cooled sleeves for the propellant charges and shells stored in their ammunition depots. In fact, the propellant charges they use are from more than a decade ago. These old-fashioned single-base propellants were used in the past when navies of various countries excessively pursued muzzle velocity and kinetic energy, neglecting safety and stability.

Even though the explosion from underwater didn't produce flames, the intense kinetic energy was enough to enrage these old folks.

Just seconds after the Virginia was hit by the torpedo, an even larger explosion followed, accompanied by a fireball that was incredibly bright in the night, as the terrifying explosive force sought an outlet within the steel hull.

If any readers recall what kind of battleship the USS Virginia was previously described as, they'll remember that this battleship had 8-inch guns stacked on top of 12-inch gun turrets. This peculiar design has actually had a brilliant effect today—as we all know, turrets are held in place by their own weight, so there was no 12-inch turret flying into the air like the British battlecruiser that was blown up by the Leithrian battlecruiser at the Battle of Scaldlark.

Instead, the eight-inch turret, which served as a "pressure relief valve," transformed into a "launch vehicle." Under the shock wave of the massive propellant detonation, the entire eight-inch turret soared more than 130 meters into the air.

However, the massive shockwave did not escape through the eight-inch turret. Just like the famous line from Jurassic Park, "There's always a way out," the shockwave also found its own way out. The entire underwater hull of the USS Virginia was blasted through by the explosion, and a large amount of seawater rushed into the hull. In the explosion, many watertight hatches failed, and the engine room, which had no central armored bulkhead, was completely flooded.

Less than 150 seconds later, the stern propeller of the USS Virginia had already emerged from the water. This steel behemoth, weighing about 1.5 tons, looked like a cockroach with its head cut off as it uglyly "arched" into the sea.

The explosion of the Virginia marked the beginning of the most frenzied moment in this naval battle fought in the dead of night. Both the officers and soldiers on the United States side and the officers and soldiers on the Ming torpedo boats and destroyers were fighting like madmen.

Everyone knew that this naval battle had entered a true life-or-death stage. This was a true life-or-death struggle in the literal sense, without any adjectives. For both sides, if the large and medium-caliber guns on the Federal Navy's ships hit the Ming destroyers and speedboats, one or two shots could render them incapable of fighting or even sink them. However, similarly, the torpedoes launched by the Ming were something that almost no ship on the United States, except for a few dreadnoughts, dared to say they could withstand.

But the Dreadnought says – Why the hell would I eat this?

What made the officers and soldiers of the United States even more terrified was—where did they get so many torpedo boats? For the first time in actual combat, the various types of warships of the United States experienced what it meant to be overwhelmed by searchlights, let alone to engage in combat!

In particular, the circular formation set up by the Federal Navy, a formation devised by the Federal Navy to counter destroyer torpedo attacks, became a graveyard for the Colombians after the Ming army's torpedo boats broke through.

Destroyers in this formation are virtually impossible to break through, but inconspicuous torpedo boats can. Once the torpedo boats break through, on the one hand, the escort ships on the outer perimeter will be unable to shield the capital ships in the center. On the other hand, the torpedoes fired at the capital ships by the torpedo boats may miss their targets, resulting in a situation where "it's better to catch them accurately than to hit them accurately." Furthermore, even if you try to take down these intruding torpedo boats with artillery fire as a last resort, the result is likely that the torpedo boats will miss their targets and instead send their shells to friendly ships.

Following the Virginia, the next ship to be hit by torpedoes was the Louisiana. This second Connecticut-class battleship was hit by two torpedoes in succession. These two torpedoes did not cause the magazine to explode, but they hit the middle of the battleship's hull one after the other. The two torpedoes hit each other in close proximity, and as a result, the damage from the two torpedoes was combined with the explosion and water pressure to form a larger, larger wound.

After a large amount of seawater rushed into the boiler room, accompanied by white steam, it emerged from the damaged parts and chimneys. The behemoth quickly lost power and lay paralyzed at sea like a patient with hemiplegia.

In less than 10 minutes, the behemoth with a full load displacement of 1.7 tons had lost control, and the ship's listing was completely beyond saving. The captain had no choice but to order the ship abandoned.

After the Louisiana was hit by a torpedo and lost power, the New Hampshire, which was following behind, turned to starboard to avoid the powerless Louisiana. However, at that moment, the torpedo boat that had just completed the torpedo attack on the Louisiana also bypassed the sinking Louisiana, and the two ships met at a corner.

Normally, a torpedo boat could easily dodge such a situation by turning around. However, the L188 torpedo boat's rudder had been damaged beforehand, resulting in very poor rudder performance. After launching the torpedoes, it was already difficult to avoid the Louisiana's hull. Faced with another capital ship that suddenly appeared, it did not have time to dodge and could only ram straight into it.

The USS New Hampshire was initially startled by the sudden appearance of the torpedo boat, but when the crew of the New Hampshire discovered that the torpedoes on the boat had already been launched, they breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, they noticed that L188 seemed to be preparing to ram them, which made them feel as if they had witnessed some huge joke.

If it were a destroyer, it might be able to show a battleship what a headbutt looks like, but unfortunately it's a small boat with a displacement of less than 100 tons. Even if it collided with a battleship, it wouldn't be able to cause any real damage to such a steel behemoth.

One side possessed thick waterline armor, while the other's hull was largely made of wood. It was like throwing an egg against a rock. Just as the US Navy officers and men were preparing to watch the spectacle, L188, about to ram them, suddenly flung out three or four black, barrel-shaped objects from its stern. The new recruits on the USS New Hampshire were still peering down curiously, while the veterans, upon seeing the barrel-shaped objects, panicked and ran backwards shouting, "Depth charges!"

While the explosive charge of a single depth charge is nowhere near that of a heavy torpedo, the effect of several depth charges exploding at close range near a warship is no less than that of a near miss dropped by a dive bomber during World War II.

Unlike on land, bombs used to bombard fortresses on warships are unlikely to cause much damage if they land a few meters away. At most, the shrapnel and sand from the explosion will scratch the surface of the fortress.

However, things are different in water. Water is more difficult to compress than air, so even a near miss that doesn't seem to hit can still cause very serious damage.

The L188 speedboat itself disappeared on the sea after the depth charge exploded. Since all the officers and men on board were killed, no one knows whether the speedboat deliberately launched such a suicidal attack at the last moment, or whether it simply wanted to take someone down with it before crashing into something after the rudder failed.

However, the depth charges dropped by L188 did damage the New Hampshire, causing a hull fracture. Although it was not in immediate danger of sinking, its speed dropped to below 12 knots.

This directly led to the New Hampshire's inability to evade the torpedoes that were fired at it half an hour later due to its own power problems.

As the battleships in the center of the formation were hit by torpedoes one after another, one of the two wheel-shaped formations of the United States Navy's Seventh Fleet finally collapsed. Most of the warships that had bravely blocked the Ming torpedo boats had already been thoroughly torpedoed, and the surviving warships basically adhered to the principle of "better to die than lose." Not only did a considerable number of them simply turn off all their lights, including searchlights, completely abandoning the mission of blocking the Ming torpedo boats, but they also sneaked away, hoping that the Ming torpedo boats, which swarmed like locusts, would not be able to see them at night.

Cheng Hengqi hadn't expected the tactics to be so effective. He had so easily defeated a part of the United States Navy. After a moment of elation, Xu Yueming reminded him that he had more important things to do.

Without time to give detailed instructions to all the formations, Cheng Hengqi had the flagship send another clear message, telling the formations that had not yet launched an attack to conserve torpedoes and not to use them on the already defeated force.

He then began to mobilize the remaining forces at his disposal, preparing to employ a strategy of "driving wolves to devour tigers"—sending torpedo boats and destroyers to drive away the defeated Federation ships, forcing them to seek refuge in another Federation naval formation.

He wasn't afraid that this would enhance the firepower of the remaining wheeled formation of the Federal Navy. In fact, if the Federal Navy accepted these warships, their formation would definitely become somewhat chaotic. They only needed to take advantage of this chaos and press forward in one fell swoop to basically take control of the situation.

And indeed, it was just as he expected. Because it was an open conspiracy, Admiral Benson had no choice but to accept the defeated ships. Even if he didn't accept them, it would be useless. If those panicked Federation cruisers wanted to squeeze into the formation for protection, even if he didn't want to, could he really fire on his own warships?

So at 4:45 a.m., using the same tactics and following the same pattern, the Ming army launched an attack with the only two regular destroyer squadrons at its disposal. In the previous round, these destroyers did not launch an attack because they needed to coordinate and command the torpedo boats, but now they did not need to, because the remaining torpedo boat squadrons were ordered to hunt freely after the destroyers opened a breach.

Admiral Benson, his face ashen, stared at the sky in the distance, which was beginning to lighten. In a little while, the first light of dawn would appear on the horizon. They were clearly not much time away from daybreak. If they could just hold out a little longer, they could switch roles from hunter to prey.

Unfortunately, General Benson knew he might never have that opportunity again.

The memory of those old battleships exploding was still fresh in Benson's mind. He knew that under the current circumstances, his dreadnoughts wouldn't perform much better; at most, their larger tonnage and better TDS would provide greater resistance to sinking.

After the United States began building dreadnoughts, the development of underwater torpedo protection technology for warships progressed rapidly. Today, the United States' standard battleships can still be considered the most torpedo-resistant warships in the world. Although the few dreadnoughts that were started before that did not have the excellent underwater structure of the later standard battleships with five layers of air-liquid compartments, they are still considered to be quite excellent designs in this era.

It's unlikely that a humiliating situation like that of the pre-dreadnoughts, where a torpedo punctures the TDS and causes a massive explosion, will occur. However, unfortunately, war is like an exam; the questions on the test don't always follow the teacher's highlighted points, and there are always some questions that are beyond the scope of the exam.

At 5:23 a.m., Benson, who had just evaded two torpedo attacks, had no time to breathe a sigh of relief before he felt a violent tremor coming from the rear of his flagship.

Chapter Seventy-Seven Rising Sun

Although the Delaware-class battleships were equipped with five twin-gun turrets, this 23,000-ton behemoth was by no means long and slender. It was only 158 meters long and 26 meters wide. Compared to the British Neptune-class battleships, which also had five twin-gun 12-inch turrets and were of similar tonnage, it was shorter and wider.

Therefore, in terms of underwater torpedo protection, these Columbia-class battleships have always performed quite well for their time—although the Columbia's pre-dreadnoughts had recently had a very poor performance, they were actually among the best of the best among pre-dreadnoughts.

In the era of dreadnoughts, the Columbia-class hull ships consistently maintained top-tier torpedo protection worldwide. This was mainly because the United States' warship designers were much more conservative than their Western counterparts. Despite their many innovative designs in the pre-dreadnought era, these were essentially just honest kids playing cosplay – they looked avant-garde but were actually quite conservative in their thinking.

What were their European counterparts doing during this era?

The British created many "paper ships," such as the first generation of super-dreadnought Orion-class battleships. Despite only a slight increase in tonnage compared to the Delaware-class battleships, the main armor belt was one inch thicker and the gun caliber was increased to 13.5 inches. What was the main reason for this?

Of course, they cut the main armor belt as narrow as a belt and cut corners in places that can't be seen. Don't worry about how many shells a nine-foot-high main armor can catch in actual combat. Just tell me, isn't the main armor 12 inches on paper?

Compared to their European counterparts who cut corners, the ships built by the designers in the United States at least met the performance specifications they had originally set on paper.

As the United States' second dreadnought, the Delaware-class battleships were designed from the outset to further improve the underwater protection of the original South Carolina-class battleships. They were also the first capital ships of the United States to be designed from the outset to withstand 21-inch torpedoes—it was unrealistic to expect a single 21-inch heavy torpedo to send a Delaware-class battleship to the bottom of the sea.

However, once the officers and men on the HMS Delaware realized they had been hit by a torpedo, a sense of panic visibly spread throughout the command tower.

The reason for this atmosphere of panic is that even if a torpedo does not sink the ship, being hit by a torpedo will inevitably cause water to enter and affect the speed of the ship. In the case of tonight, losing maneuverability means that the possibility of being hit by a torpedo in the future will increase significantly.

On the other hand, it was naturally due to the location of the torpedo hit – judging from the direction of the vibration, everyone could tell that the torpedo hit the rear of the ship. If it had hit the propeller or the rudder, the entire ship would have been no different from a dead ship, even if it hadn't sunk.

Throughout all the battles of this world war, there has never been a ship whose propeller was blown off that was able to return to port.

"Find out exactly where the torpedo hit!" The captain of the USS Delaware immediately issued the order. If the propeller had been hit by a torpedo, he would have to urge the commander to change the flagship at this critical moment.

Admiral Benson remained silent, clearly awaiting the outcome. Although it was not an honorable thing for a naval commander to be forced to change flagships during combat—especially when he was beaten to such a state by a group of speedboats much smaller than himself.

Admiral Benson didn't have the thought of "I will never abandon my flagship." After all, as the commander of the Federal Pacific Fleet, under normal circumstances, Admiral Benson should be leading the Third Fleet, the "top main force," in the Southwest Pacific to guard the main force of the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy. He was currently stationed in the Seventh Fleet only because of the high level of domestic attention to the surrounded United States forces. Therefore, he was specifically here to ensure the smooth implementation of the entire withdrawal plan, which was like Bottas participating in an amateur bicycle race in addition to playing Formula 1.

In this situation, Benson certainly wouldn't hesitate to do so, but changing the flagship is a very troublesome matter. It's not like a commander can simply take a small boat to another warship; you have to move the entire command and staff team from the flagship. Moreover, given the chaotic state of the battle at night and the current situation at sea, transferring by small boat is inherently risky. So unless the entire ship is beyond repair, it's best not to change the flagship.

The damage report for the USS Delaware was quickly relayed back—a torpedo had hit the area below the waterline around turret number five. The hit was indeed on the propulsion system, which was located relatively far back. However, apart from the outermost steam turbine, which was temporarily shut down due to the violent shock from the torpedo explosion, the other three propellers and the rudder were mostly intact.

The helmsman on the conning tower confirmed this: the warship can still sail normally, although it originally had four propellers for propulsion, but now only three are in use, which affects the ship's speed and causes some yaw during the voyage. However, the yaw can be corrected by the rudder, and the rudder mechanism has been tested and found to be working properly. The water ingress into the hit area has been largely contained. It is speculated that the torpedo that hit the ship was a 500mm torpedo, which is fortunate in a bad way.

After the news arrived, everyone in the command tower looked much better. Although it was springtime and the temperature was much warmer than in winter, people who fell into the water for a long time would still suffer from hypothermia. And if they were to transfer from one boat to another in the dark, no one knew if any accidents might happen. In such low visibility, if someone fell into the sea, they could not expect to be pulled out before sunrise.

Even Admiral Benson's expression improved noticeably, but the torpedo still served as a reminder to him—now was not the time to worry about the land forces!

He made a mistake from the very beginning: when he realized that the enemy had reached Dongxinluo Bay, he should have immediately led the entire Seventh Fleet to leave the area and temporarily retreat to the depths of Yingzhou Sea.

Although it looks like a group of giants being scared away by goblins, which doesn't sound very honorable, it's only when you win a battle that you can talk about honor or disgrace; losing would only make you more shameful!

The enemy has only deployed these speedboats, which have limited range. They can't stay in this area for long. We can simply wait for them to run out of fuel and withdraw before returning. We can still evacuate our troops then. Why fight them to the death to defend the landing zone? Do you think a group of torpedo boats can use their torpedoes to defeat the surrounded Federation forces on the shore?

At this point, however, the admiral had subconsciously overlooked his own position. He had not anticipated that the enemy would send so many torpedo boats. He thought the enemy would send cruisers and destroyers. If cruisers and destroyers did come and were allowed to bombard the Federation forces on the shore, the already morale-damaged Federation forces would probably collapse at the first contact.

People often regret not making a different choice when faced with failure, but in fact, sometimes your choice has no impact on the outcome of your failure.

If we had to pinpoint exactly what caused all this, it would probably have to be traced back to Yingzhou's sudden defection. The United States found itself to have acquired the World Island region it had always dreamed of, as if a pie had fallen from the sky—even if Yingzhou was only on the edge of the World Island, its allure to the United States, a nation on a new continent, was unparalleled.

However, over the past year, increasing evidence has shown that this windfall, like a pie falling from the sky, is merely equivalent to a down payment on a house that was given away for free, but it has left the United States with a heavy mortgage burden.

Regardless, after his flagship was hit by a torpedo, Admiral Benson decided to lead the fleet to withdraw from the bay and head to the depths of the Yingzhou Sea. Under such circumstances, the fleet needed to move more quickly, since dodging torpedoes at sea and dodging missiles while flying a plane on Anton Star have some similarities—it is definitely easier to dodge torpedoes/missiles if you are fast.

However, it is not easy to effectively issue orders to make the entire fleet move together now. The Ming army has almost occupied all the commonly used communication frequencies, which can be considered a kind of "jamming". The telegraph operators themselves are not sure whether the friendly forces can receive the telegrams they send, or whether they will be drowned out by the enemy's radio communications. However, Admiral Benson has made up his mind and is prepared to take a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he has the telegraph operators find a way to send telegrams, and on the other hand, he has people prepare to launch "follow me" signal flares.

The latter can be considered a typical means for the navy to maintain fleet structure and basic command functions as much as possible in chaotic situations. That is "Follow me". As long as other ships can see this signal, they will at least maintain the same order - follow the flagship, even if they do not receive other signals.

However, such an order required the flagship to be at the forefront, because only in this way would the other ships know how to follow. Therefore, Admiral Benson ordered the battleship HMS Delaware to accelerate.

After being hit by a torpedo, the Delaware's speed was reduced to 8 knots, which was certainly not enough to lead the fleet out of the current predicament. Although being hit by a torpedo would definitely affect the speed, Benson needed to know how fast the ship could go now.

However, he was quite dissatisfied with the result. Although he was only missing one propeller, the speed had dropped to 14 knots.

"This is far too slow," Admiral Benson asked the captain of the USS Delaware with some displeasure. "How long will it take to restore the damaged power? Our No. 4 steam turbine only stopped temporarily due to some vibrations during the battle, how come it's taking so long to restore it?"

Having just heard the first mate's report, the captain immediately admitted, "The investigation into the power system is still ongoing. Although the latest news indicates that the steam turbines haven't suffered serious damage, after all..."

"No buts!" Benson said decisively, "Our actions now are to save the entire fleet! The United States needs the No. 4 steam turbine of the USS Delaware back in operation! Get them to find a way to restore the No. 4 steam turbine and No. 4 propeller as quickly as possible!"

Under Admiral Benson's repeated emphasis and urging, the engine room crew on the USS Delaware, after completing an emergency check of steam turbine number 4, started the steam turbine without conducting a more detailed and comprehensive inspection.

Once power was restored, the No. 4 steam turbine quickly started the No. 4 propeller. However, instead of the expected feedback from a normally functioning propeller, the ship began to vibrate violently shortly after the No. 4 steam turbine was restored.

In fact, if someone had underwater vision at that time, they would have noticed that the main shaft of propeller number 4 had already bent due to the impact of the previous torpedo explosion, while the internal steam turbine had not suffered any fatal damage and this minor issue could be completely ignored.

While this was somewhat troublesome, it wasn't a major problem from the perspective of the ship's survivability; it could simply be discontinued. However, Admiral Benson insisted on restoring this part of the power.

Then, tragedy happened.

As one of the highest quality steels used on warships, the metallic properties of bearing steel are beyond doubt. The hull, on the other hand, is just ordinary structural steel. Therefore, when the fourth engine was restarted, the shaft immediately shredded the surrounding hull.

This not only created another water inlet in addition to the one that had been blocked at the stern of the ship, but more importantly, the sudden influx of water not only submerged the two main engines, causing them to completely shut down, but also drowned most of the damage control team that was carrying out damage control operations at the stern.

But by the time Admiral Benson on the bridge realized something was wrong, it was too late. The flooding at the stern of the battleship, which had been damaged again, was out of control. This ship, which had survived the Ming torpedoes, was about to be scuttled at sea because of the impatience and stupidity of its own men. It was a great irony.

In another world, a battleship that also perished at sea due to this foolish way of dying was the HMS Prince of Wales, which was seen in the Malay sunset.

As the sun finally rose above the distant horizon, its rays shone upon the HMS Delaware, whose stern was almost entirely submerged, and whose captain had already given the order to abandon ship.