11.  Let no man give offence to his officer, or strike his equal or inferior on board, and let mutinous persons be punished in most severe manner.

12.  Let no man depart out of his ship in which he is first entered without leave of his commander, and let no captain give him entertainment after he is listed, upon pain of severity of the law in that case.

13.  If any fire should happen in your ship, notwithstanding your care (which God forbid!), then you shall shoot off two pieces of ordnance, one presently after the other, and if it be in the night you shall hang out four lanterns with lights upon the yards, that the next ships to you may speed to succour you.

14.  If the ship should happen to spend a mast, or spring a leak, which by increasing upon you may grow to present danger, then you shall shoot off two pieces of ordnance, the one a good while after the other, and hang out two lights on the main shrouds, the one a man’s height over the other, so as they may be discernible.

15.  If the ship should happen to ran on ground upon any danger (which God forbid!) then you shall shoot off four pieces of ordnance distinctly, one after the other; if in the night, hang out as many lights as you can, to the end the fleet may take notice thereof.

16.  You shall favour your topmasts and the head of your mainmast by bearing indifferent sail, especially in foul weather and in a head sea and when your ship goeth by the wind; lest, by the loss of a mast upon a needless adventure, the service is deprived of your help when there is greatest cause to use it.

17.  The whole fleet is to be divided into three squadrons:  the admiral’s squadron to wear red flags and red pennants on the main topmast-head; the vice-admiral’s squadron to wear blue flags and blue pennants on the fore topmast-heads; the rear-admiral’s squadron to wear white flags and white pennants on the mizen topmast-heads.[2]

18.  The admirals and officers are to speak with me twice a day, morning and evening, to receive my directions and commands, which the rest of the ships are duly to perform.  If I be ahead I will stay for them, if to leeward I will bear up to them.  If foul weather should happen, you are not to come too near me or any other ship to hazard any danger at all.  And when I have hailed you, you are to fall astern, that the rest of the ships in like manner may come up to receive my commands.

19.  You shall make in every ship two captains of the watch, or more (if need be), who shall make choice of soldiers or seamen to them to search every watch in the night between the decks, that no fire or candle be carried about the ship after the watch is set, nor that no candle be burning in any cabin without a lantern, nor that neither but whilst they are making themselves ready, and to see the fire put out in the cook’s room, for there is no danger so inevitable as the ship’s firing.

20.  You shall cause the landmen to learn the names and places of the ropes that they may assist the sailors in their labours upon the decks, though they cannot go up to the tops and yards.