The other addition appears in MS. at the end of the printed signals.  It runs as follows:  ’When at anchor in line of battle to let go a bower anchor under foot, and pass a stout hawser from one ship to another, beginning at the weathermost ship,’ an addition which would seem to have been suggested by what had recently occurred at the Nile.  Nelson’s own order was as follows:  ’General Memorandum.—­As the wind will probably blow along shore, when it is deemed necessary to anchor and engage the enemy at their anchorage it is recommended to each line-of-battle ship of the squadron to prepare to anchor with the sheet cable in abaft and springs, &c.’[9] Another copy of the signal book has a similar MS. addition to the signal ’Prepare for battle and for anchoring with springs, &c.’[10] It runs thus:  ’A bower is to be unbent, and passed through the stern port and bent to the anchor, leaving that anchor hanging by the stopper only.—­Lord Nelson, St. George, 26 March, 1801.  If with a red pennant over with a spring only.—­Commander-in-chiefs Order Book, 27 March, 1801.’  These therefore were additions made immediately before the attack on the Danish fleet at Copenhagen.

No other change was made, and it may be said that Howe’s new method of breaking the line was the last word on the form of attack for a sailing fleet.  How far its full intention and possibilities were understood at first is doubtful.  The accounts of the naval actions that followed show no lively appreciation on the part of the bulk of British captains.  On the First of June the new signal for breaking through the line at all points was the first Howe made, and it was followed as soon as the moment for action arrived by that ’for each ship to steer for, independently of each other, and engage respectively the ship opposed in situation to them in the enemy’s line.’  The result was an action along the whole line, during which Howe himself at the earliest opportunity passed through the enemy’s line and engaged on the other side, though as a whole the fleet neglected to follow either his signal or his example.

In the next great action, that of St. Vincent, the circumstances were not suitable for the new manoeuvre, seeing that the Spaniards had not formed line.  Jervis had surprised the enemy in disorder on a hazy morning after a change of wind, and this was precisely the ’not very probable case’ which Clerk of Eldin had instanced as justifying a perpendicular attack.  Whether or not Jervis had Clerk’s instance in his mind, he certainly did deliver a perpendicular attack.  The signal with which he opened, according to the signification as given in the flagship’s log, was ’The admiral intends to pass through the enemy’s line.’[11] There is nothing to show whether this meant Howe’s manoeuvre or Rodney’s, for we do not know whether at this time the instruction existed which enabled the two movements to be distinguished by a pennant over.