[4] Hoste, the author of the first great treatise on Naval Tactics, quotes Tromp’s formation as a typical method of retreat; but his account is vitiated by what seems a curious mistake.  He says:  ’Il rangea son armee en demi-lune et il mit son convoi au milieu:  c’est a dire que son vaisseau faisait au vent l’angle obtus de la demi-lune, et les autres s’etendoient de part (sic) et d’autre sur les deux lignes du plus-pres pour former les faces de la demi-lune qui couvroient le convoi.  Ce fut en cet ordre qu’il fit vent arriere, foudroiant a droite et a gauche tous les anglois qui s’approchent’ But if with the wind aft his two quarter lines bore from the flagship seven points from the wind, the formation would have been concave to the enemy and the convoy could not have been au milieu. (Evolutions Navales, pp. 90, 95, and plate 29, p. 91.) The passage is in any case interesting, as showing that what was then called the crescent or half-moon formation was nothing but our own ‘order of retreat,’ or ‘order of retreat reverted,’ of Rodney’s time.  As defined by Sir Charles Knowles in 1780, the order of retreat reverted was formed on two lines of bearing, i.e. by the seconds of the centre ship keeping two points abaft her starboard and larboard beams respectively.  In the simple order of retreat they kept two points before the beam.

[5] No reference to these orders appears in the correspondence of the generals at this time, unless it be in a letter of John Poortmans, deputy-treasurer of the fleet, to Robert Blackbourne, in which he writes on March 9:  ’The generals want 500 copies of the instructions for commanders of the state’s ships printed and sent down.’ (S.P.  Dom. 48, f. 65.)

[6] Clarendon MSS. 45, f. 470.

[7] Hoste, Evolutions Navales, p. 78.  Dr. Gardiner declared himself sceptical as to the genuineness of the French gentleman’s narrative, mainly on the ground of certain inaccuracies of date and detail; but, as Hoste certainly believed in it, it cannot well be rejected as evidence of the main features of the action for which he used it.

COMMONWEALTH ORDERS, 1653.[1]

[+Duke of Portland’s MSS.+]

By the Right Honourable the Generals and Admirals of the Fleet.  Instructions for the better ordering of the fleet in fighting.

First.  Upon the discovery of a fleet, receiving a sign from the general, which is to be striking the general’s ensign, and making a weft,[2] two frigates [3] appointed out of each squadron are to make sail, and stand with them so nigh as they may conveniently, the better to gain a knowledge of them what they are, and of what quality, and how many fireships and others, and in what posture[4] the fleet is; which being done the frigates are to speak together and conclude in that report they are to give, and accordingly repair to their respective squadrons and commanders-in-chief, and not to engage if the enemy[5] exceed them in number, except it shall appear to them on the place they have the advantage: