Chapter 552: The Stranded Admiral
You know, there are many ways for a person to become a hero, worshipped by his offspring, with his carcass being stored in a shrine or a temple that will become the monument of the city in the time to come, and be somehow turned into a tourist hotspot by the government in the future and used to gain some extra revenues for the city’s failing finance. But the easiest way is always through dying in a battle, especially an outmatched battle.
Abraham has never ever thought of becoming a hero, at least not in this land far away from home.
"Admiral! Admiral!"
A lieutenant came running towards Abraham, almost tripping over the fallen mast in the process.
"Admiral! It is time to go! It is time to go! The ship is sinking!"
The lieutenant pulled Abraham by his elbow, wishing that he can stop just standing there and leave this cursed place, but it seems like Abraham has suddenly come back to realisation as he violently pushed his lieutenant back.
"Don’t touch me! Leave me here! It is my duty to sink with my ship!"
Yes, the flagship of the Roman fleet is now sinking.
The sun is now already hanging high in the sky as the battle has lasted all the way from the dawn of the previous night to the noon of today. The turning point came this morning, as the Venetian fleet, after suffering from a tremendous lose from the bombardments of Roman shelling, decided to regroup and charge directly towards the broadsides of the Roman fleet staying in a coordinated and well-ordered manner.
While the Roman fleet, on the other hand, are stuck in the shallow seas, among the wreckage of the sinking ships and hidden boulders and accompanied with the unfair wind directions and worsened sailing skills, made the coordination and order of the Roman fleet into a mess creating a jam within themselves, even crashing into one another because of some agitated and poorly experienced sailors, creating a perfect opportunity for the Venetian fleet to engage.
The Venetian fleet charged head on into the Roman fleet in three groups, losing only three ships in the process from Roman shelling, and now, the Venetians finally realised how weak those artilleries they feared just now are, when they are reloading or in a close proximity. The Venetian fleet blew open two huge holes in the Roman defensive formations, and then multiple Venetian sailors and mercenaries disembarked on smaller boats, climbing onto the Roman ships and started engaging in close quarter combat.
The Roman fleet’s defences began getting peeled open piece by piece like a jack fruit, with the core of the fleet getting more and more exposed to the Venetians as the later came closer and closer to Abraham’s flagship.
By this time, the smaller Venetian fleet that has been trailing the Roman fleet since a day ago finally caught up its speed against the wind and joined the main fleet in the encirclement of the Romans. The trap is now sealed, and by now the various Roman captains finally gave up on their very last bit of hope for winning and started thinking about how to get the hell out of this crap hole. But Giovanni Mocenigo is definitely not that kind of foe who would obey by the code of chivalry and let his opponents go free, he ordered the subsequent Venetian ships that are not yet engaged in battle to close in on the encirclement immediately, aiming to not leave any ways of escape behind.
Some other Venetian scout ships have even started to make use of their Greek fire to create additional death traps to stop the Roman fleet from retreating, end up burning themselves in the process.
This is the reason why Abraham’s lieutenant wanted his admiral to retreat so desperately, if he continues just standing here, then the possibility of escaping will get lesser and lesser. But the admiral kept on persisting that he wants to die with the ship.
"Forgive me! Admiral!"
The young lieutenant lifted the thin Abraham high up in the air, leapt across the fallen mast and threw the admiral onto the lifeboat that is already waiting for departure. Then he too jumped onto the boat and set sail for the nearest island, Abraham stopped resisting after a while.
Slowly bit by bit, the battlefield started to fade away behind the boat as these men have successfully made of out, all the roars of shells, clashing of ships can no longer be heard, and due to the burning of the seas a rainbow is formed in a distance away right in the centre of the war zone creating an exquisite zone, but surely no one ever on this ship has the mood to appreciate this view created through fire and death.
The boat continued sailing towards the nearest island, with every crew onboard staying dead silent. They could not feel the dreadfulness creeping onto them just now during the height of the battle, but certainly they can start feeling it now, since the battle is already over for them. Actually they are not the only ones floating on the seas in this area, there are more than a dozen more boats in this area sailing towards the same direction in sight- some of them carrying the insignias and flags of the former Roman fleet, while some did not.
Honour and pride is a privilege for the victors, not for the losers.
Abraham and his crew arrived on the shores of a densely populated island, finally, and started gathering all the surviving crew. But the Venetian scout ships tracing them too arrived in no time, and they began circling around the islands, like a pack of sharks circling around their bleeding prey.
The group of sailors, totally demoralised, just simply sat there on the shores.
"Where are we?"
No one answered.
"Where are our nautical maps?"
"I... I believe that we have lost it, admiral."
Upon hearing this Abraham forced himself to lean back up and gave his men a stare. "I remember that I have taught you, that your nautical maps are even more valuable than your lives when travelling on the open seas?"
The sailors opened his mouth wishing to find some words to defend for themselves.
"We lost our nautical lives only because of the disastrous defeat."
Abraham sighed and leaned back sinking themselves in the sands.
The bulk of the Roman fleet have been destroyed in that battle, and there will definitely be no reinforcements or backups coming for their rescue.
"I believe that we are on an island that is close to the city of Avlonya, admiral. I think that I have seen this isle before during my fishing trips with my father when I was young."
"Really!"
Abraham struggled to get himself back up again. "All of you! Listen! We need to relocate to the highest point of the island! So that we can have a clear view on the situation around us! Quick... get me up!"
"Admiral! Why don’t you just wait here and tender your wounds, We shall..."
"A commander, no matter what kind of would he has, must be fully aware of the warzone at have acknowledgement of all the intelligence and information at all times! And besides, we shall be a lot safer if we have the high ground, those Venetians can assault this island at any times!"
The sailors had no choice but to comply and relocated to the higher grounds, while there are some who chose to stay behind, grumbling that Abraham has lost the ability to lead them after dragging them into such a tremendous defeat that has never been seen before when the Caesar used to sail with them.
Abraham did not bother getting these people to move their arses and left with those who are willing to continue listening to his orders.
What the local sailor was saying just now is indeed correct, Abraham can clearly see a walled port city just 10 nautical miles away. However, there is nothing to cheer about, as the sails of the Venetian ships are way much faster than human feet as they have already blocked the port, and with multiple other ships arriving on the spot patrolling the area to make sure that no one makes it out of the island.
Despair started to spread among the survivors upon seeing this.
"It is over!" A young sailor cried out loud. "We are over! We are doomed! We have been stranded on this island that has nothing other than sands and rocks! We don’t even have fresh water! There will not be any fleet coming for our rescue! And we do not have any allies in the Mediterranean, we are destined to all die here!"
The rest of the sailors too either collapsed onto the rocks and started weeping, or just sat there without saying a single thing.
They are indeed in deep, deep trouble.
