372: Chapter 370: Annihilate Completely 372: Chapter 370: Annihilate Completely Using direct-fire torpedoes to hit a target usually requires aiming, but the Avenger didn’t have any aiming devices.
Yet, with a distance of less than 800 meters and the target being the large vessel emph{Nisshin Maru}, no rudimentary aiming device was needed.
Pavlovich only had to line up the bow with the emph{Nisshin Maru},
Almost no adjustment of direction was needed.
Pavlovich immediately issued the command to continue the attack.
“Torpedo on the right, countdown to launch, 3, 2, 1, launch!”
“Torpedo on the right launched!”
After Pavlovich completed the countdown, the sailor responsible for firing pressed a red button, but after pressing it, there was no movement from the torpedo tube 53-39 located on the rightmost side of the bow deck.
“Captain, the torpedo on the right has failed to launch!”
The torpedo on the right didn’t launch, and the sudden malfunction made Gao Yang’s heart tighten.
But noting that the emph{Nisshin Maru} had not made any movements, Pavlovich calmly and gravely said, “Torpedo on the right, launch again.”
The red button was pressed once more, but still, there was no response.
At this point, the sailor responsible for firing shouted, “Torpedo on the right failed to launch.
Malfunction confirmed!”
Pavlovich shrugged his shoulders and shouted, “Cancel the launch of the torpedo on the right.
Prepare torpedo on the right number two.”
Golov had been quietly translating Pavlovich’s orders.
Learning that one torpedo had malfunctioned, Gao Yang felt his heart tighten even more.
Watching the second launch fail, Gao Yang suddenly had an idea and shouted to Pavlovich, “I apologize, captain, may I fire the remaining torpedoes?
I’m very sorry, but this is quite important to me.”
Pavlovich, interrupted by Gao Yang, looked furious, but after Gao Yang finished speaking, the only hesitation in Pavlovich vanished, and he agreed to Gao Yang’s request.
With a wave of his hand, he said in English, “You do the launch.”
Gao Yang was overjoyed and strode to the simple launch control console.
Launching a torpedo, in essence, is not something that entails a great deal of technical content.
Even though it’s just pressing a button, it was enough to excite Gao Yang immensely.
The torpedo launch mechanism on the bow deck had been connected to the cockpit.
Six torpedo buttons corresponded to the six torpedoes, three of each type.
To launch a particular torpedo, you only needed to press the corresponding button.
The technically intensive work had already been handled by the sailors responsible for the torpedoes.
The simple task of pressing a button was naturally no problem for Gao Yang.
Gao Yang stood in front of the launch console, and though it was just a hastily assembled board with a few buttons and merely required a flick of his fingers, at that moment, Gao Yang felt his blood rush to his head—there was no helping it, he was thrilled.
Pavlovich took another glance at the emph{Nisshin Maru}, which had almost not moved, and then immediately said in English, “Torpedo on the right number two, countdown to launch, 3, 2, 1, launch!”
As soon as he heard the word “launch,” Gao Yang pressed the button for torpedo number two on the right, and then, the front end of torpedo tube number two on the right opened, and with a whoosh, a 53-65 torpedo was launched.
The 53-65 torpedo is a wake-homing and acoustic self-homing torpedo, which means it uses both passive and active homing modes.
In other words, this type of torpedo belongs to the smart kind that can chase down the target until it is sunk.
Even if the target makes large evasive maneuvers, it is difficult to escape the tracking of a 53-65 torpedo.
Nevertheless, the 53-65 torpedo would only activate its automatic homing seeker head after reaching a minimum attack distance of one thousand meters, and since the Avenger was less than eight hundred meters from the emph{Nisshin Maru} at the moment, the 53-65 torpedo, once launched, simply functioned like a straight-running torpedo.
The maximum speed of a 53-65 torpedo can reach 45 knots, and now, the 53-65 torpedo was heading towards the emph{Nisshin Maru} at full speed, trailing a long white wake.
At this moment, almost no one on the emph{Nisshin Maru} realized they were under attack, which wasn’t surprising.
You cannot expect the crew of a whaling ship to be able to react and analyze the situation as quickly as the crew on a military ship, especially since only a very short time, barely three to four minutes, had passed.
The majority were still shocked and confused by the sudden disappearance of the No.
2 Shonan Maru.
They could think of reasons like UFOs, sea monsters, or even wonder if the No.
2 Shonan Maru had exploded on its own, yet no one considered that a torpedo had been launched at them from a fishing boat not far away.
The crew members on the deck of emph{Nisshin Maru} shouted as they ran to the starboard side, confused and agitatedly yelling out loud, but no one knew exactly what to do.
The captain of the emph{Nisshin Maru} gave the order for a rescue, but looking at the empty sea from the cockpit, he did not know whom his rescue order was meant to save.
The ship sank too fast, so fast that there was no time even to understand what had happened, let alone for anyone to escape.
The No.
2 Shonan Maru, with all on board, would be better sought by a deep-sea salvage vessel.
The captain of the Nisshin Maru was a very experienced old captain who was well-acquainted with the waters of the Southern Ocean.
He knew that there would be large schools of whales there, and he was familiar with the work of processing whales on board.
He was an excellent captain of a deep-sea fishing vessel.
However, he had no idea how to deal with torpedoes.
In fact, even if he saw one, he would not react immediately.
You don’t have to have eaten pork to see pigs run.
Thanks to modern advanced media, when the captain of the Nisshin Maru saw that fast-moving white line on the sea surface, his subconscious reaction was that it was a torpedo.
But his reason told him that torpedoes couldn’t possibly be in the Southern Ocean, where warships rarely venture.
How could it be a torpedo?
This time, however, his reason and experience misled him.
While the captain was still staring at the white line, desperately telling himself it wasn’t a torpedo, his first officer was beside him, screaming hoarsely, “Torpedo, it’s a torpedo, turn the rudder left, full speed ahead!”
As the first officer, scared out of his wits, yelled to go full speed ahead, the captain of the Nisshin Maru was muttering to himself, “Nani?
How could this be a torpedo?
How could there be a torpedo here?
What a joke, there’s no war here, how could it be a torpedo?
But it really does look like one, how could this be a torpedo?”
“Torpedo, it really is a torpedo!”
“We’re under attack, run for it!”
“But where do we run to?”
The Nisshin Maru had the largest crew onboard, most of whom were on deck processing the hunted whales and repelling the Arctic Sunrise nearby.
So, there were a lot of sailors on deck.
At this point, the sailors gathered on the starboard side, after a few of them started shouting about torpedoes, turned into a chaotic mob, screaming and running in a panic until they reached the port side, and that was the limit of their escape.
When the first officer of the Nisshin Maru gave the order to take evasive action, the torpedo was about three hundred meters away from the Nisshin Maru.
If the Nisshin Maru were a car, it could have easily dodged it.
Unfortunately, the Nisshin Maru was an eight-thousand-ton large ship, traveling at the pace of two or three knots.
If under such circumstances the Nisshin Maru could have evaded it, then the physical laws of this world would need to be rewritten.
The only thing the captain of the Nisshin Maru felt was a sudden jolt beneath his feet before he was thrown backward, knocking his head and lying dazed on the ground, his only thought being: “Could it really be a torpedo?”
The first officer was more competent than the captain, having clung to a fixed chair, he wasn’t shaken to the ground.
He grabbed the broadcast microphone and screamed, “We are under attack, everyone abandon ship, abandon ship right away.”
The first officer knew the ship was going to sink.
After crossing in front of the captain, he immediately seized the radio microphone and bellowed, “We’re under torpedo attack, the ship’s about to go down, SOS, SOS!”
Gao Yang watched as the 53-65 torpedo plunged into the Nisshin Maru near the stern and exploded.
First, there was a flash, then ripples, followed by a surge of water, and at last, he heard a deafening explosion.
The 53-65 torpedo had a total weight of 2.1 tons, with just the warhead weighing 400 kilograms.
A single torpedo of this kind could disable or even sink ships over ten thousand tons.
The power of a torpedo is much greater than that of an anti-ship missile, because torpedoes attack below the waterline of a ship, where water is almost incompressible.
Thus, the explosive force of a torpedo’s warhead will transfer directly through the water to the hull of the ship.
Even if it doesn’t hit the ship directly, a close-range explosion is enough to sink a large vessel.
The Nisshin Maru was hit directly, so there was no doubt it would sink.
But in the end, the Nisshin Maru was also a large ship.
Although it was directly hit, it did not break in two like the No.
2 Shonan Maru.
Though doomed to sink, it could hold out for a little longer.
A huge hole had been blasted in the midsection of the Nisshin Maru, and seawater quickly filled the cabins through the hole.
The stern of the Nisshin Maru sank rapidly, while the bow slowly started to rise.
The Nisshin Maru was sinking.
At that moment, Pavlovich turned to look at Gao Yang, who waved his hand and said fiercely, “Continue, keep attacking, we can’t let a single ship escape, we can’t let any boat get away!”
Then Uriyangko urgently said, “Be careful not to hit the Arctic Sunrise by mistake.
We only target Japanese ships, we must not harm the Arctic Sunrise.”
Pavlovich nodded, reached for the radio, and then, adjusting the microphone on the public frequency, immediately transmitted the repeated urgent cries.
“This is the Arctic Sunrise, stop the attack!
What are you doing!
Good God, what’s happening!
Shunli Hao, please respond, this is the Arctic Sunrise, what are you doing!”
Ignoring the calls from the Arctic Sunrise, Pavlovich grabbed the microphone.
Uriyangko, however, grabbed Pavlovich’s hand, stopping him, and then picked up something resembling a cell phone from the captain’s console and said in a hurried voice, “You forgot the voice changer, hold this to your mouth before you talk.”
Pavlovich shrugged, held the voice changer to his mouth with one hand, and the radio microphone in the other, and loudly said, “Warning, Arctic Sunrise, leave immediately or you will be sunk.
I repeat, Arctic Sunrise, please leave immediately or you will be sunk right away.
You have two minutes.
After two minutes, we will commence the attack.”(To be continued.
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