FOOTNOTES: 

[1] It is a folio parchment-bound volume, labelled ’Royal Charles Sea Book,’ but this is clearly an error, due to the fact that the first order copied into it is dated from the Royal Charles, April 24, 1666.  The first entry, however, is the list of a ship’s company which Spragge commanded in 1661-2, as appears from his noting the deaths and desertions which took place amongst the crew in those years.  At this time he is known to have commanded the Portland.  For some years the book was evidently laid aside, and apparently resumed when in 1665 he commissioned the Triumph for the Dutch War.

[2] See notes supra, pp. 108-9, and in the Dartmouth MSS., Hist.  MSS.  Com.  Rep. XI. v. 15.

[3] Harleian MSS. 1247.  It contains orders addressed to Moulton and returns for the Centurion, Vanguard and Anne, the ships he commanded in 1664-6.  At p. 52 it has a copy of the above ‘Additional Instructions,’ but numbered 1 to 6, articles 1 to 5 of the Dartmouth copy being in one long article.  At p. 50 it has the original articles as far as No. 6.  Then come two articles numbered as 7 and 8, giving signals for a squadron ‘to draw up in line’ and to come near the admiral.  They are subscribed ‘Royal James, Admiral.’  The Royal James was Rupert’s flagship in 1665, and the two articles may be squadronal orders of his.  Then, numbered 9 to 12, come four ‘additional instructions for sailing’ by the Duke of York, relating to chasing, and dated April 24, 1665.

[4] Some of these articles are dated even as late as April 27, See in the Penn Tracts, Sloane MSS. 3232, f. 33, infra, p. 128.

[5] See post, p. 177.  For the despatches, &c., see G. Penn, Memorials of Penn, II. 322-333, 344-350.  He also quotes a work published at Amsterdam in 1668 which says:  ’Le Comte de Sandwich separa la flotte Hollandaise en deux vers l’une heure du midi.’  He explains that by the order for the rear to tack first, Sandwich was leading, forgetting Coventry’s despatch (ibid. p. 328), which tells how by that time the duke had taken Sandwich’s place and was leading the line himself, and that it was he, not Sandwich, who led the movement upon Opdam’s ship in the centre of the Dutch line.

[6] Charnock, Biographia Navalis, i. 65.

[7] Pepys, it must be said, persuaded himself that this order was suggested and approved by the admirals.  He traced it to Spragge’s desire to get away with his chief on a separate command.  Pepys however was clearly not sure about it, and he almost certainly would have been if the Duke of York was really innocent of the blunder.  The truth probably can never be known.