As they were not issued till 1703, the second year of the war, in which Rooke did nothing but carry out a barren cruise in the Bay of Biscay, we may assume that the Cadiz expedition of 1702 proceeded under Russell’s old instructions of the previous war.  It was under Rooke’s new instructions, however, that the battle of Malaga was fought in 1704.  They were certainly in force in 1705, for a copy of them exists in the log book of the Britannia for that year (British Museum, Add.  MSS. 28126, ff. 21-27).  They were also used by Sir Clowdisley Shovell during his last command; as we know by a printed copy with certain manuscript additions of his own, relating to chasing and armed boats, which he issued to his junior flag officer, Sir John Norris, in the Mediterranean, on April 25, 1707 (British Museum, Add.  MSS. 28140).  Nor is there any trace of their having been changed during the remainder of the war.  At the battle of Malaga they were very strictly observed, and in the opinion of the time with an entirely satisfactory result; that is to say that, although Rooke’s ships were foul and very short of ammunition, he was able to prevent Toulouse breaking his line and so to fight a defensive action, which saved Gibraltar from recapture, and discredited the French navy to such an extent that thenceforth it was entirely neglected by Louis XIV’s government, and gave little more trouble to our fleets.

Though no copy of these Fighting Instructions has been found with a later date than 1707, we know that with very slight modifications they continued in use down to the peace of 1783.  The evidence is to be found scattered in proceedings of courts-martial, in chance references in admirals despatches, and in signal books.  For instance, in the ‘Mathews and Lestock Tracts’ (British Museum, 518, g), which deal with the courts-martial that followed the ill-fought action off Toulon in 1744, eight of the articles then in force are printed.  All of them have the same numbering as the corresponding articles of 1703, six are identical in wording, and two, Numbers I. and XIII., have only the slight modifications which Admiral Mathews made, and which have been given above in notes to the similar articles in Russell’s set.  These modifications, as we have seen, were subsequently incorporated into the standing form, and appear in the undated copy of the complete Fighting Instructions in the Admiralty Library.  Again, Article XIV. of 1703 is referred to in the Additional Fighting Instructions issued by Boscawen in 1759.[1] According to a MS. note by Sir C.H.  Knowles they were re-issued in 1772 and 1778, and Keppel in 1778 was charged under Article XXXI. of 1703.  Finally, there is in the Admiralty Library a manuscript signal book prepared by an officer, who was present at Rodney’s great action of April 12, 1782.  In this book, in which 1783 is the last date mentioned, there is inserted beside each signal the number of the article in the printed Fighting Instructions to which it related.  In this way we are able to fix the purport of some twenty articles, and all of these correspond exactly both in intention and number with those of 1703.