Chapter 11 Chapter 11 No Answer

Eight days after the Battle of Kassos, the Occidental Tower searched carefully the Ottoman coast and harbors in this area, passing through the Gulf of Gongtaisha, to the entrance of Santo Mountain and Gashandra Bay, from Cape Debranu to Baba. Cape Lulie.By April 15 it had lost sight of even the highest peak of Mount Athos. During this time, not a single suspicious vessel was encountered.They often encountered Turkish ships, and the captain of the Occidental Tower would rather be shot than greet them.If you meet a Greek ship, it will be different, and you can ask them a lot of information.This is useful for patrol ships.

Under such circumstances, Henry learned of an important event on April 26.The Alliance of Great Powers has decided to cut off all reinforcements to Ibrahim from the sea.Russia has officially declared war on Turkey, and the situation in Greece continues to improve. Even if there are some obstacles and disturbances, it is no longer possible to stop the pace of Greece's independence. On April 30, the patrol ship arrived at the end of the cruise - the extreme edge of Salonik Gulf.Suspicious ships such as old-fashioned three-masted ships can still be pursued in this area until they are driven aground on the beach.Even if the pirates are not dead, the ships are almost gone.

While it was continuing southeast, a strange and unexplainable event occurred on board. On May 10, at around seven o'clock in the evening, Henry returned to the meeting room at the stern of the West Tower and found a letter on the table.He picked it up and carefully read the words on it: Delivery: Received by Captain Henry Darbale, captain of the Tower of the West, who is on a mission at sea! Henry thought the handwriting was very familiar, and it was similar to the handwriting of the letter received on Theo Island, which was the letter advising him to take up his post on the Western Tower.

Now this letter, strangely arriving, not by post, reads as follows: "If Captain Darbale can arrange to pass through the waters of Skarsundo in the first week of September in his voyage plan to cross the archipelago, it will be a great fortune for all beings, and it will help to complete the mission entrusted to him." This letter, like the one received on Theo Island, had no date, place, or signature.After Henry made a comparison, he determined that they were made by the same person. How to explain it?The first letter came from the post office, and at this moment, there was only one possibility, that the sender was on board.Then he must have carried the letter with him from the beginning, or went up to get it when the ship docked.An hour earlier, when he had left the conference room, the letter hadn't been there, it must have come in within the hour.

Captain Henry rang the bell. A sailor arrives. "Who was there when I was on deck just now?" asked Henry. "No one has been, Captain," replied the sailor. "No?... Could someone come in and you didn't see it?" "No, Captain, I never left the door." "Ok!" The sailor saluted and withdrew. "Someone can walk through the door without being seen," Henry thought to himself, "it seems unlikely! Could it be that someone came in through the window of the corridor outside while it was dark?" Henry checked all the windows that opened aft, but every single one was locked securely from the inside.It is also impossible to climb in from the outside.

Hengkan is not worried about this matter, but just a little curious.But one thing is certain, that is, no matter what method is used, the messenger has achieved his goal, and the captain of the Western Tower has received the letter. After some consideration, he decided not to mention the matter to anyone, not even the mate, for what was the use of telling it?Now we have to think about the content of the letter. What does it mean? "Of course," he thought, "this writer didn't lie to me in what he said in his first letter. Now it's the second time. He wants me to be in the waters of Scarpendo in the first week of September, which is no good. It’s a lie, it’s probably related to our mission! Alright! I’ll revise the flight plan, and when the specified date arrives, I’ll be on time to catch up with the appointment!”

He then began to revise the sailing plan in accordance with the new instructions, and by the end of August he had four months to go. Scarpendo was in the southeast of the archipelago, hundreds of nautical miles away from the right course.Before that, the patrol ship still has enough time to go to the waters around Moria.No major changes are required.Just tweak the original plan a little bit. On May 20, after inspecting several small islands north of Nagpon, the Western Tower went to Silos to inquire about the situation. Silos, the largest of this group of islands, is said to have been the domain of the Muses in ancient times.Sailors can purchase fresh food, sheep, bamboo chicken, wheat, barley, etc. here, as well as local good wine.The island has more connections with the legends of demigods and half-men in the ancient Trojan War, and has attracted worldwide attention for names such as Ligomede, Achilles, and Odysseus.It was now to become the capital of the Urbai of the New Kingdom of Greece.

The terrain of the harbor along the coast of Silos is relatively complicated, and it is easy for pirates to use it as a hiding place.Henry searched every place strictly and never let it go.Despite being as careful as a cast hair, there is still no gain, and these places are all empty.Henry got the news from the island that a month ago, many merchant ships in this area were attacked, and the flag was still flying on the pirate ship. Everyone believed that the pirate leader Shakdiff did it.But this claim seems unfounded, and so little is known about this great thief. The patrol ship left Silos after five or six days of anchorage. At the end of May, she approached the island of Evieux, and made a careful search of about forty kilometers of its coastline.

At the beginning of the War of Independence, the island took the lead in rebellion. The Turks who were huddled in the castle resisted desperately for a period of time, until Yusuf Pasha brought troops to help, and now they ran rampant on the island, killing everywhere.It was not until September 1823 that a Greek leader led troops to conduct a surprise attack on the Ottoman army, killing most of the Turkish soldiers, and forcing them to flee the island, cross the strait, and run back to Desari. Later, the Turks made a comeback, relying on their numbers and strength, they occupied the island.Colonel Fabvier and Captain Renaud Saint-Jean-Gerly tried unsuccessfully to recover the island.By 1826, it became the territory of the Turks again.

When the Tower of the West passed here, the Turks were still on board.From the boat Henry saw the old battlefields where he had fought.There is no fighting here now.The island of Evie, with 60,000 inhabitants, became a state of Greece after the establishment of the New Kingdom. Although it is almost under the guns of Turkey, cruising on the sea is very dangerous, but the Western Tower did not slack off and destroyed about 20 pirate ships that were doing evil at sea. This leg of the trip took a good part of its total six months.Now it goes straight down to the southeast.At the end of June, come to Andros Island at the end of Evie Island - this is the largest island in Sigrad, a glorious patriotic island with a history of rebellion against Ottoman rule.

From here Captain Darbale decided to change course and head southwest near the Peloponnesian coast. On July 2, the Western Tower moored at the port of Zea Island, which is one of the better ports in this area. They met many old comrades in the early days of the war and brave Zea fellow villagers. The patrol ship was attacked at the port. A warm welcome.Obviously pirates would not settle in such a place, so the Western Tower set sail immediately. On July 5, it reached Cape Coron. A week later, the ship arrived at the mouth of the Aegean Gulf. Because there was no wind, the speed was very low, and a high degree of vigilance was required.At this time, there was no wind on the sea surface, and the patrol ship was almost parked in the middle of the sea, unable to reach any shore.If hundreds of small boats came to paddle up in this pirate-infested waters, the Western Tower might not be able to resist.So always be ready to face offenders. Sure enough, many small boats came out. Their intentions were obvious, but they were afraid to approach because they were frightened by the cannons on the ships. On July 10th, a northerly wind blew, which really helped the Western Tower.It quickly circled Skiri Headland at the end of Nafplio Bay. On the 11th she sailed past the Isle of Hydra.Two days later, through Spezia.Residents of both islands contributed to the War of Independence.There is no need to elaborate here.The fighting had subsided when Henry's patrol ships visited the islands, which were about to be assigned to the New Kingdom as the two capitals of the provinces of Corinth and Argolis. On July 20, the patrol ship arrived at Shira Island and anchored.It was the home of the faithful Urmai, sung in Homer, and is now the refuge of those driven from the continent by the Turks.The Catholic Archbishop of Thera had always been under French protection, so the young captain was received with great hospitality.Henry is full of joy about this, but also has a regret.When he talked with the French consul here, he heard that a three-masted ship named Calista, flying the Greek flag, had just left three days ago, and he couldn't help but regret why he hadn't arrived three days earlier.But now it became clear that the Calista had indeed escaped while the patrol ship was engaged in battle with other bandit ships, and it sailed to the south of the archipelago after leaving Kerthos. "Does anyone know where it went?" Henry asked excitedly. "It is said that it either went to some port in Crete, or headed towards the islands to the southeast." "Have you never dealt with its captain?" "Never, Captain." "Then do you know if the captain's name is Nicola Scotta?" "I have no idea." "Then this three-masted ship is in the same gang as the gangsters at sea, can you be sure of that?" "That's for sure. If that's the case, it's not surprising that it sailed to Crete. Some of the ports there are completely open to pirates." This news was not beyond Henry's expectations, so it didn't excite him either.It's just too unfortunate that it didn't come across it.Since it was heading south, the patrol ship was going in the same direction, so sooner or later they would meet.Because he was eager to find Nicola Scota, Henry ordered the anchor to be weighed that night, and left the island of Syra with a breeze.According to the barometer indication, the wind may increase. It cannot be denied that, for fifteen days, Captain Darbale had spent the same amount of effort in finding the corsair and the barque.In his mind, dealing with the Calista should be the same as dealing with a pirate ship. However, he could not see the shadow of the Calista. The patrol boats searched all the ports in Naxor, and there was no trace among the surrounding small islands and reefs.It is strange that all the pirate ships should have disappeared in the places they used to haunt.However, the Sigrad Islands are very rich, and the business between the islands is very prosperous, and the pirates cannot let them go. Corresponding to Naxoyao, Nicolas Scotta has never visited Baros and the surrounding ports separated by an artificial canal seven nautical miles wide.Perhaps, as the consul said, he was headed for Crete. On August 9, the Occidental Tower berthed at Port Miro.The island was barren due to volcanic eruptions.It had been rich in the eighteenth century, but now the population is dwindling, and the land is full of poisonous miasma. It was a waste of effort here, not only was there no shadow of the three-masted ship, but even the ordinary pirates who often rob the passing merchant ships in this area did not see a single one.This made the captain think that maybe the Western Tower was too conspicuous, and the pirates would have been hiding away.The patrol ship gave the pirates in the northern part of the archipelago a taste, so the guys in the southern part got wind of it and fled.In short, no matter what the reason is, the sea in this area has never been so calm, and it seems that merchant ships can pass here with confidence in the future.The Tower of the West asked every ship it encountered, but none of them could offer an iota of useful information. Seeing August 14th, there are still two weeks left, which is the day to arrive at Scarpendo as agreed.The patrol ship had left Siglar by this time, and was heading southward for seventy or eighty leagues.The snow-capped peaks of the narrow island of Crete rise above the sea. Captain Darbale decided to sail in the direction of Crete, where he turned eastward to Scarpento. In the meantime, after leaving Miro Island, the patrol boat checked every creek in the cliffs of Santorini.The sea is dangerous, with new reefs created every moment by volcanic eruptions. The next day, August 15, the largest island in the archipelago loomed on the bluish horizon, a depression on the coast that was its capital, Kandy. "Captain, do you mean which port you want to call at?" asked the first mate. "Crete has always been in the hands of the Turks," replied Henry, "and I don't think we can do much here. From what I heard in Silas, although the Sfaks have been fighting them, Musta The French army has occupied the whole island." "The Sfalks have earned a reputation for valor since the war, and these mountain people are very tough," said the first mate. "Brave is brave . The guns were thrown on the ground, that's all right, they all went to pick up things, and the Turks took advantage of the opportunity to escape from the pass, otherwise none of them would have escaped." "It's very sad, but, Captain, the Cretans are definitely not Greeks!" It was natural for the native Greek chief mate to say this. In his eyes, although the Cretans were very patriotic, they were not Greeks before, and even after they were incorporated into the territory of the New Kingdom, they were not Greeks.Crete and Samoa were to remain under Turkish jurisdiction until 1832, when the Sultan handed over control of the island to Muhammad-Ali. Right now, the captain of the patrol ship does not want to stop in any port.Kandi is now Egypt's large arsenal, and it was from here that Pasha dispatched troops to attack Greece.As for Kanai, patrol ships flying the Corfu flag will not be welcome.The following series of places have not received any news.Finally, at the end of the cruise, he had his reward. He said to the first mate: "I don't think it's useless to monitor the northern coast. We should go around the northwest corner of the island, turn around Cape Sparta, and cruise the Grubbs Sea for a day or two." Not a bad idea.Grubbs Waters had a bad reputation, and the Western Tower might find a chance to fire a few volleys there, and hadn't encountered pirates in over a month.Besides, if the three-masted ship really came to Crete, it might be possible to moor at Grubz, which gave Henry another good reason to go to that area of ​​​​the sea. Grabz is a pirate stronghold. Seven months ago, the British and French fleets and the regular Greek army came to sweep it, but the Crete authorities refused to hand over the twelve pirates hiding on the island, so the fleet commander had to order to fire on the shore. Destroyed many ships and forcibly landed to ask for prisoners. Now, after the British and French fleets drove away, the pirates came one after another, using the protection of the Turks to continue their criminal activities.So Henry decided to follow the south coast of Crete to Scarpento, which would have to go through Grubz.He issued an order, and the first mate immediately sent someone to carry it out. The weather is fine and the climate is pleasant. December is the beginning of winter, and January is the end of winter.Crete is worthy of being the home of King Minos and the wise Daedal.When Hippocrates practiced medicine in Greece, he sent wealthy patients to Crete to recuperate. It was dusk when the Tower of the West rounded Spartan Headland as close to the wind as possible.On this night—it was a transparent eastern night—the patrol boat sailed around the island.As soon as the wind turns it can head south.In the morning, the patrol ship had entered Grubz. During the six-day voyage, the captain kept his eyes on the western coast of the island.There were countless sailing ships of all kinds sailing from Grubz, and he questioned several of them, but found nothing suspicious.But the ships were coy about the possibility of pirates in Grubz, and it was felt that they were afraid of being implicated.Henry also couldn't ask if the Calista was in port. On August 27, the Occidental Tower crossed the Matala Pass, the southernmost point of Crete.Looks like this cruise came to nothing.Few ships cross the Libyan Sea at this latitude, usually on northerly or southerly routes.Except for a few small boats moored by the rocks, there were almost no ships in sight.These narrow and long small fishing boats usually transport a kind of precious conch produced in this area of ​​the island. Although nothing was found among the islands where a large number of small boats can be hidden, it does not mean that the following voyage was also nothing.According to the revised plan, Henry decided to go directly to Scarpendo. At six o'clock, the captain, first mate, and several officers assembled in the poop to observe the Matala Spur.Suddenly, a watchful sailor cried out: "There's a boat ahead on the starboard side!" All the telescopes were turned in this direction at once, and looked several nautical miles away. "Yes," said the captain, "it sails close to land..." "Is the flag up?" "No, Captain," replied an officer. "Ask the sentinel to recognize the nationality of this ship?" After a while, the answer came that the ship had no markings and could not be recognized. However, it was not too dark to tell its nationality, or at least its horsepower. This is a two-masted sailing ship, the main mast is tilted back, the hull is long and narrow, and it is very delicate. It is estimated that its tonnage is seven or eight tons, and it is very fast.But are there any weapons on it, and is there a gun emplacement on the deck?These cannot be seen with the highest power telescope on board. The distance between the two ships was now about four miles, and the sun had just set, so the shadows were deepening. "It's a strange ship!" said Captain Todros. "It seems to be trying to pass between Polatana Island and the coast," said one of the officers. "Yes, it seems to regret being seen, and is trying to avoid it!" Henry didn’t speak, but he also agreed with the officers’ judgment.The ship was less suspicious now. "Captain Todros," he began, "mainly don't lose it at night, and follow it until daylight. But don't let it find out, and ask someone to turn off all the lights on the ship." The first mate gave the order to continue monitoring it.At night, the ship completely melted into the night, and there was no light on board, so it was impossible to determine its position. The next day, just after dawn, Henry stood on the deck, waiting for the fog on the sea to clear. At seven o'clock the fog lifted.All telescopes are facing east. The brig was still close to shore, about six miles from the patrol ship.It was obviously faster than the patrol ship at night, but all her rigging remained the same, the same, neither added nor subtracted. "The speed of a ship trying to escape will not be like this!" said the first mate. "Whether he escapes or not!" said the captain, "get closer! Captain Todros, give me orders to pursue the brig at full speed." The boatswain whistled, the sail was pulled up, and the patrol boat picked up speed. Probably the three-masted ship didn't want the patrol ship to get too close, so it also set up the small sail and the big three-relief sail, but it didn't pull any more. It can only be said that it didn't want to get too close, and didn't want to pull too far away. , just keep a distance like this.At about ten o'clock, I don't know whether it was because of the wind of the big ship or the small boat made it close on purpose, but the patrol boat caught up with the four nautical mile voyage. The ship can now be clearly seen.It is equipped with more than 20 short guns, and although the draft is very shallow, it can still be seen that it has a middle cabin. "Raise the flag!" Henry ordered. Immediately the flag was hoisted on the mast, and a cannon was fired.This is the patrol ship asking the brig about its nationality, but there is no response from the other party.It continued to maintain its original direction and speed, and the hull rose by a quarter of a degree, preparing to cross the Kaila East Bay. "Good guy, how dare you be so presumptuous!" shouted the sailors. "Perhaps it's for caution," said an old sailor. "Look at its sloping mast, just like a man with his hat on one side, deliberately not saying hello!" The patrol ship fired a second shot.Still no response.The brig continued her smooth sailing, ignoring the signals from the patrol ship. Now, there appears to be a race of speed between the two ships.The Tower of the West hoisted all sails, and the other sailed full, keeping the distance between herself and the ship. "Hey, it's got a ghost in its belly, and it's running so fast!" cried an old sailor. The people on the patrol ship were a little impatient. Not only the crew, sailors, but even the officers were in a hurry, especially Todros, who was more anxious than anyone else. No matter what nationality it was, we should catch it first, even if we don’t want him to A captive bonus. The long-range cannon on the Occidental Tower could fire a thirty-pound shell two nautical miles. Captain Darbale, who had always looked calm, gave the order to fire. The cannon went off.The shell, skimming the water, landed about twenty fathoms from the brig. The ship didn't move at all, only slightly adjusted its supplementary sails, and the patrol ship fell behind again. It was a great shame that the Tower of the West had all her sails hoisted and fired two shots, and she was thrown out of the way. It was getting dark, and the patrol boat was now at Cape Belisdella.The sea wind is very strong, it is safer to reduce some sails and spend the night. The captain thought that the ship must not be seen after dawn, and it might have disappeared on the horizon. He was wrong. When the sun rose, the brig was still there, and it was still at the same speed, maintaining that distance, as if it adjusted its speed completely according to the speed of the patrol ship. "It regards us as its tugboat, and it looks like we are being dragged by it," said the man on deck. Indeed. Now it has crossed the canal between Guvnici Island and the mainland, sailed around Cape Calgaryti, and is preparing to head east of Crete. They probably want to hide in some bay or some narrow canal? Actually not. At seven o'clock in the morning the brig turned northeast and entered the sea. "To Scarpento?" Henry wondered. Facing the increasingly strong sea wind and the danger of the sail being blown off, the patrol ship continued to chase. This is what its duty and honor required it to do. Now entered the widest part of the archipelago sea.In this open water the Western Tower seemed to have the advantage, and by about one o'clock in the afternoon the distance between the two ships was less than three nautical miles.The Occidental Tower fired several more shots, still missing, and the ship continued its voyage unaffected. Scarpendo's summit loomed on the horizon.Captain Henri Darbale and all the officers and men on the patrol ship were finally able to meet the people on this mysterious ship.He is so presumptuous, rude, and does not answer any signals and inquiries. But around five o'clock in the afternoon the sea breeze abated and the brig began to gain the upper hand again. "Oh, damn it! . . . Hey, the ghost's helping it! . . . It's gone again!" cried Captain Todros. They tried their best, and used all the speeding methods that sailors have used and imagined, such as soaking the sail to make the fibers tense, lifting the hammock to propel the ship forward with the power of swing, etc., of course they still started. some effect.At about seven o'clock in the evening, the sun had just set, and there was still a distance of two nautical miles between the two boats. Night falls suddenly at this latitude.Evening is only for a short while.There was still speed to catch the brig before it was completely dark. At this moment the brig was between Kassos and Buro.Just at the bend in the narrow channel between Kassos and Scarpentor, the brig suddenly disappeared. Half an hour after it disappeared, the Western Tower caught up.It was still very bright at this time, and everything within a radius of several miles could be seen clearly, let alone such a large ship. But the brig was gone.