373: Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-One: Sinking Too Slowly 373: Chapter Three Hundred and Seventy-One: Sinking Too Slowly A person’s voice is also impossible to disguise.
After Pavlovich’s voice was processed by the voice changer, it sounded somewhat shrill, and once transmitted over the radio, there was no need to worry even if the voice was recorded.
Now the Nisshin Maru was bound to sink, but the other two whaling ships, one behind the Nisshin Maru and the Arctic Sunrise, separated by two ships, the Avenger certainly couldn’t reach it, and the other one was blocking right in front of the Arctic Sunrise, with its bow aimed at the Avenger.
Of course, Pavlovich wouldn’t actually attack the Arctic Sunrise, but a strong attitude and wording were indispensable.
To sink the remaining two whaling ships, it was necessary to get the Arctic Sunrise to leave; otherwise, the torpedoes were very likely to mistakenly hit the Arctic Sunrise.
After a stern warning to the Arctic Sunrise, Pavlovich casually turned off the radio, then took the voice changer away from his mouth and shouted, “Check torpedo number one on the right, eliminate the malfunction as soon as possible.”
Gao Yang thought Pavlovich would order the continuation of torpedo fire until the Nisshin Maru was sunk, but Pavlovich didn’t seem to plan to do so.
The sinking speed of the Nisshin Maru was very fast, the bow had already surfaced, but the crew on the Nisshin Maru was already lowering the lifeboats.
Gao Yang was now only worried about the crew escaping from the Nisshin Maru; it seemed they had enough time to launch the lifeboats.
Although anxious, Gao Yang didn’t speak out.
Pavlovich was the captain; it was up to him to decide how to proceed.
Four people ran to the deck to check why torpedo number one on the right was not firing, while Pavlovich did not issue any new orders.
Although the Avenger’s speed was slow, it was getting closer and closer to the Nisshin Maru, soon less than five hundred meters away.
The whaling ship in front of the Arctic Sunrise began to reverse at full speed and then made a turn, steering behind the Nisshin Maru, meaning there were now three ships behind the Nisshin Maru.
Upon seeing that ship finally start to move, Pavlovich immediately commanded, “Hard to port, full speed ahead.”
The Avenger began to accelerate, and once the ship had completed a large turn, Pavlovich immediately gave the order, “Hard to starboard.”
After that, Pavlovich looked at Gao Yang and said, “Prepare torpedo number two on the left, prepare torpedo number three on the right, make sure to listen clearly to the commands before firing, do not mix them up.”
The Avenger’s speed gradually picked up, and at this time, two ships came out from the left side of the Nisshin Maru, almost parallel, only the one on the right being the Arctic Sunrise.
One whaling ship was using the Arctic Sunrise as a shield, surging forward with it, while the other ship was still reversing at full speed, and also moved behind the Nisshin Maru, using the sinking Nisshin Maru as a shield.
The four ships circled in an extremely confined space, but Pavlovich didn’t seem concerned, shrugged at Gao Yang and the others, then grabbed a bottle and took a big gulp of vodka, afterward laughing and saying, “Crafty Japanese, pretty good at hiding, but I want to see how long you can hide.
Now, hard to port in reverse.”
The Avenger immediately began to slow down, and having come to a complete stop, started to accelerate in reverse.
As the Avenger’s speed increased, the ship moved back to the right side of the Nisshin Maru, a whaling ship charged from the left side of the Nisshin Maru.
Although it wasn’t moving very fast, if the Avenger hadn’t reversed, it would have been met head-on by the ship; if it had continued straight on, it would have been hit on the flank.
A collision head-on with a ship of thousands of tons was not a laughing matter; even at a slow speed, it could cause significant damage to the hull, and since the Avenger’s torpedoes were mounted on the bow, if it had really been hit, it was very likely that all the torpedoes would be unable to fire, or even worse, set off the triggers to explode on the Avenger itself.
In that case, the Avenger would be the one in trouble.
Seeing that whaling ship suddenly emerge, Gao Yang after a moment of panic, realized the critical point of the maneuver and immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
Pavlovich seemed completely unbothered, instead, he appeared delighted, laughing heartily, “Ha ha, First Kawatama Maru, truly a brave opponent.
In honor of their courage, let’s offer them two generous gifts.”
The Avenger was moving backward, and just as the bow of the First Kawatama Maru emerged from the left side of the Nisshin Maru, the Avenger’s bow was facing the left side of the First Kawatama Maru.
Pavlovich then loudly ordered, “Prepare torpedo number three on the left, torpedo number three on the right!”
The First Kawatama Maru, having failed to hit the Avenger and now exposed its bow, had already begun to turn right, and moreover, it was picking up speed.
Meanwhile, the Avenger continued to move backward, rapidly increasing the distance between them to nearly a thousand meters.
Finally, Pavlovich shouted, “Torpedo number three on the right, fire!”
Gao Yang pressed a button, and an A-244S lightweight torpedo was launched.
Following that, Pavlovich continued, “Prepare to launch the left three torpedoes, countdown five seconds, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, launch.”
This time, two torpedoes were fired in succession.
After Gao Yang had pressed the button for the left three torpedoes, another torpedo was launched.
The A-244S torpedo is a 324mm lightweight torpedo, only 2.7 meters in length, with a total weight of 235 kilograms, and a warhead of only 34 kilograms.
Such a torpedo definitely has enough power for anti-submarine warfare, but against a ship, the power was somewhat inadequate, and its maximum speed was only thirty knots.
The torpedo, trailing a white line, brushed past the bow of the Nisshin Maru and pursued the First Kawatama Maru.
It was then that Gao Yang realized that the two torpedoes seemed to have veered off course.
The speed of the First Kawatama Maru was roughly around ten knots and was still accelerating.
However, to reach its maximum designed speed of 25 knots would take quite some time, and the distance between First Kawatama Maru and Avenger was just over a kilometer, which is a little more than half a nautical mile.
So, it wouldn’t take too long for the A-244 torpedoes to bridge this more than half a nautical mile gap.
Pavlovich took one look at the direction of the torpedoes then shouted, “Stop reversing, full speed ahead, pursue No.
3 Yongshin Maru!”
Yongshin Maru, with the cover of Arctic Sunrise, had already made it at least three kilometers away, and only one 53-65 heavyweight torpedo remained, along with one 53-39 straight-running torpedo that couldn’t be launched.
Avenger, which was reversing, came to a halt, then began to move forward at full speed.
But by the time Avenger completed this process, the distance to No.
3 Yongshin Maru had increased even further, and Avenger’s speed was still slow, needing to gradually pick up.
As Avenger chased at full speed, No.
3 Yongshin Maru had already made it at least five kilometers away.
Gao Yang looked at First Kawatama Maru, then at No.
3 Yongshin Maru, and finally at the Nisshin Maru, still lowering lifeboats, a hint of doubt arose in his mind, wondering whether they could annihilate all four whaling ships this time.
While Gao Yang was harboring doubts, he saw the A-244 torpedo that was initially traveling in a straight line suddenly start to turn.
He suddenly understood; A-244 torpedoes had homing capabilities, not like the old-fashioned torpedoes that could only travel in straight lines.
The straight trajectory towards First Kawatama Maru didn’t matter at all, as long as the torpedoes’ sonar heads could locate First Kawatama Maru after activation.
An A-244 torpedo caught up with the First Kawatama Maru and exploded at the stern, and after a short while, the second torpedo also struck the rear of First Kawatama Maru.
Although the A-244’s power was not great, it still created two skull-sized holes in the stern of First Kawatama Maru and damaged the rudder and propeller.
By now, No.
2 Shonan Maru had sunk to the seabed, Nisshin Maru was in the process of sinking, and First Kawatama Maru could only wait for death in place.
Therefore, only No.
3 Yongshin Maru remained to be dealt with.
Pavlovich sighed, picked up the voice changer again, and turned on the radio before shouting loudly, “Arctic Sunrise, I warn you again, you’re within the range of our torpedo attack.
Turn left immediately and come towards us, or pray that the torpedo’s automatic target selection chooses the whaling ship and not you.”
Arctic Sunrise seemed quite willing to cover No.
3 Yongshin Maru’s departure, but after Pavlovich warned them again, Arctic Sunrise finally made a sharp turn to the left and veered away from No.
3 Yongshin Maru, which had been paralleling it.
Avenger pursued at full speed, and No.
3 Yongshin Maru was also moving at full speed.
When Arctic Sunrise was no longer a factor interfering with Avenger’s torpedo launch, the distance between No.
3 Yongshin Maru and Avenger had stretched to six kilometers, which in nautical miles, is a bit over three.
At that moment, Pavlovich shouted, “Launch the left two torpedoes!”
Gao Yang launched the last functioning torpedo.
Although No.
3 Yongshin Maru had accelerated to an approximate speed of fifteen knots, the 53-65’s speed was 45 knots.
The huge difference in speed meant that, as long as the 53-65 torpedo’s homing head functioned correctly, it would soon catch up to No.
3 Yongshin Maru.
While First Kawatama Maru made serpentine maneuvers, No.
3 Yongshin Maru continued to dash straight forward.
After traveling a distance of a kilometer, the homing head of the 53-65 torpedo began to operate, following the wake of No.
3 Yongshin Maru.
It was much faster, and soon after catching up to the stern of No.
3 Yongshin Maru, it caused a massive explosion, lifting the rear of the ship high.
Though it didn’t break in half like No.
2 Shonan Maru, No.
3 Yongshin Maru sank rapidly.
In less than three minutes, No.
3 Yongshin Maru had sunk to the seabed.
At this point, what Gao Yang and his crew had to do was to watch as Nisshin Maru and First Kawatama Maru slowly sank.
Of course, the ‘slow’ sinking was relative.
In the eyes of the crew members on board Nisshin Maru and First Kawatama Maru, who were crying and screaming, their ships were sinking incredibly fast.
However, Gao Yang was not satisfied with the sinking speed of Nisshin Maru.
He wanted to completely crush the hope of the Japanese who were still trying to escape.
(To be continued.
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