Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 691 Burning Malacca
The draft of a ship varies greatly depending on the waters it is in, but there is a basic calculation formula: the displacement (tons) divided by its cross-sectional area (square meters).
Of course, this formula may not be accurate, because the cross-sectional area of a warship varies greatly in different locations. But basically, it is pretty close to the truth if you calculate according to the above formula.
In short, the draft of the Marquis in the Malacca Sea is 5.5 meters, while the draft of a sailing warship with a displacement of only about 1,200 tons is only about 4.1 meters under extreme load.
Originally, according to the Ming army's mines set at a depth of 3.5 to 4 meters, these suicidal sailing warships could basically detonate all the mines along the way. However, there are always exceptions. A mine that sank very deep due to the quality of its float dropped to 4.3 meters below the water surface after being dropped into the water.
The technicians of the Ming Navy certainly knew that the enemy's giant ships had a draft of more than four meters, but why didn't they position the mines deeper from the beginning? It was still a quality issue. If they were placed too deep, the mines would either sink completely or explode. Therefore, the depth was generally set at about 3.5 to 4 meters - at this position, even the enemy's heavy cruisers would be caught in one fell swoop.
But the battlefield is often full of surprises. A mine sank a little more due to insufficient buoyancy, and then it was lucky enough to get close to the Santa Cruz...
"Ding~Ding~" The shrill alarm sounded throughout the ship. The damage control team members rushed to the bottom of the ship like crazy to stop the leak, but a large amount of seawater still poured in mercilessly.
A mine is not like a torpedo. The latter has to take speed into consideration, so the amount of explosives in the warhead cannot be too much. But a mine is different: once it is dropped, it is fixed, and as long as the float is strong, you can put as much explosives as you want.
In short, this mine strike and the violent explosion caused an irregular hole three meters long and nearly one meter wide just below the bow of the Marquis.
"Sir, the damage control team reports that the water in the bottom hold is at least 600 tons, and the water level has not decreased. The water depth in the bottom hold has reached three meters. They now need to dive to plug the leak, which means that the plugging efficiency has been significantly reduced."
"Only the cabin under the bow was damaged, right?"
"Yes, sir. In that compartment is the base of the first turret's ammunition feeder."
"One turret that can't fire won't save us. Order our damage control team to withdraw as soon as possible and close the watertight door of that compartment."
"...As you command , sir."
"After the compartment is filled with seawater, the damage control department will calculate which compartment to open for water injection so that the hull can regain balance. Damn it, I feel a little unsteady on my feet now."
"As you command, sir."
Soon, following Garcia's decisive order, the Marquis gave up plugging the leak. After about 1,200 tons of seawater poured in, it stopped pouring in after flooding the compartment under the bow due to the watertight bulkheads.
Although only 1,200 tons of seawater entered, the full load displacement of the Marquis was only 14,000 tons. The influx of seawater directly caused the speed of the entire Marquis to drop from 12.5 knots at its highest point to 10 knots, and the hull also tilted slightly to the left. More importantly, since the flooded compartment was the base of a turret ammunition feeder, the first turret of the Marquis, at this moment, except for one shell in each of the two barrels, could not fire more shells, at least in this battle.
"Sir, the damage control team has calculated that the ship can basically restore balance after about 700 tons of water is injected into the third compartment on the right side of the midship. That compartment is full of food, so flooding is not a big problem. However, the speed of the entire ship will be further reduced to 9 knots."
"Don't worry about the speed, just add water!"
"yes."
After giving this order, Garcia walked to a row of copper tubes and said, "Attention, everyone. Attention, everyone. Our ship has been hit by a mine. Our speed has dropped, but the overall loss is controllable. Now, there are mines on our left and right, and friendly ships behind us. We have no way to retreat, we can only move forward bravely ! I order all ships to move at the maximum speed and strive to get out of this minefield. God bless the Alliance, God bless Spain!"
"Long live!"
At this time, the Spanish Navy, because of the birth of Philip, did not decline and sink as in the original plane of history. On the contrary, the Spanish Navy at this time may not have the famous generals, but the basic quality of the soldiers is still the best in Europe. After the commander encouraged him a little, all cabins responded enthusiastically to the commander through the communication copper tube.
At 9:03 that evening, the Marquis took the lead and rushed out of the minefield - at this time, it was only 3,000 meters away from the Ming Navy's battle line.
"This bastard is really crazy. He rushed out with such a serious injury! In this case, there is nothing more to say. Fire!"
At this time, the Ming Navy had been waiting outside the mine array for a long time. All the warships pulled their hulls horizontally, completely occupying the T-head, and even the shooting parameters were calculated repeatedly. Therefore, when Yan Siqi and Li Guozhu shouted the order to fire, the thirty warships fired 180 shells in a moment.
Because the firing parameters were adjusted in advance, the hit rate of this salvo was extremely high. The Marquis, with its bow facing the enemy, was hit by a total of 32 shells of various types amid the sound of ping-pong.
After fighting with the enemy many times, the Ming army knew that its 155mm and 105mm main guns would have difficulty penetrating the enemy's 10,000-ton ships, so in this round of shooting, all the thirty warships fired were incendiary bombs!
The incendiary bombs did not directly damage the ship, but because the front was hit by 32 bombs, the entire front half of the Marquis deck quickly caught fire. The intense heat quickly ignited all the flammable objects on the deck, and also forced the soldiers in the turret to run out of the rapidly heated steel "steamer". In a short time, the Marquis had rushed out of the minefield for 100 to 200 meters, and the main guns and secondary guns of the entire battleship did not fire a single shot.
"Damn it!" As the saying goes, fire rises, flames and hot air all go up. Soon, in the command tower, which was about 4 meters above the deck, everyone's feet felt scorching hot.
"Where's our damage control team?"
"Sir, the fire is so severe that the damage control team is trapped amidships. They cannot reach the forecastle deck until the fire amidships dies down."
"Damn it!" He hammered the command desk hard, but it felt a little hot. Garcia shook his hands slightly and unbuttoned the discipline button of his military uniform: "Are we out of the minefield?"
"Uh... I think so."
"Don't worry about that. Turn the rudder to the left, turn the ship sideways, and start firing our tail guns!"
"As you command, sir."
In the few minutes when half of the Marquis was engulfed in flames and the other half was worried about being hit by torpedoes again, the Ming army fired two more salvos. Of the 360 shells, 23 hit the Marquis again.
At 9:15 p.m. on November 6, the Marquis, with the front half of the ship ablaze, finally turned sideways, and the two 305mm main guns of the No. 3 turret at the stern also turned around and aimed at the Ming army's battleship line.
"Boom!" After a huge roar, hundreds of kilograms of artillery shells roared towards the Ming army's battleships, splashing a huge column of water about 300 meters away from a Ming army warship.
"Damn Western pirates, their ship is already burned like this, yet they can still fire." Both Yan Siqi on the Luoyang and Li Guozhu on the Jilin looked solemn at this moment.
After a while, both commanders began to change the combat orders.
Li Guozhu's order was: "Switch to armor-piercing shells and see if the enemy's armor has become softer after being burned for so long."
Yan Siqi's order was: "Small battleships, Kunming, Dali, Simao... switch to armor-piercing shells, close the distance, and shoot within a thousand meters of the enemy!"
Following the orders of the two commanders, the Ming army soldiers replaced the shells and controlled the engines to move forward, and the battle became more intense.
At 9:20 p.m., the Jilin, which was the first to complete the reloading, fired a shell at the Marquis in a new round of salvos. The shell pierced the Marquis's bow at a 45-degree angle from mid-air, where the fire was raging.
In the past, when the Ming army hit a giant ship like the Marquis, the explosion of the projectiles was often accompanied by a harsh clanging sound. But this time, there was no clanging sound.
"Sir, our armor has lost strength under high temperatures and can no longer effectively resist the enemy's main gun fire."
"My ship's armor was breached?"
"Not yet, but just a little bit away. Who knows, the next one..."
As they were talking, another shell from another warship came whizzing in. This time, the shell landed on the fire in the middle of the ship where the damage control team had just put out the fire with water. This time, the deck steel, which had increased in brittleness due to the intense heat expansion and contraction, finally couldn't hold up. The shell directly penetrated the deck and entered the hull, causing a violent explosion!
In the command tower of the Jilin, the lookout's surprised voice suddenly came: "Hit! Armor broken!"
"Long live!"
"Sir, the damage control team just reported that the shell penetrated the first deck and exploded inside the hull. Fortunately, the area destroyed was the sailors' accommodation area, so there were almost no casualties."
"God bless you." After making a cross on his chest, Garcia shouted into the communication copper tube in the engine room: "Go full speed ahead and make room for the friendly ships behind us to join the attack."
At nine thirty-five, amid the bright flames and billowing smoke of the Marquis, the 5,000-ton heavy cruiser La Coruña of the Spanish Navy's First Squadron finally broke out of the minefield!
