Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 | Page 2

came to hand, encouraged by the belief
that the fullest material for the study of Nelson's tactics at the battle of
Trafalgar could not be out of place in a volume issued by the Society in
the centenary year.
As to the general results, perhaps the most striking feature which the
collection brings out is that sailing tactics was a purely English art. The
idea that we borrowed originally from the Dutch is no longer tenable.
The Dutch themselves do not even claim the invention of the line.
Indeed in no foreign authority, either Dutch, French or Spanish, have I
been able to discover a claim to the invention of any device in sailing
tactics that had permanent value. Even the famous tactical school which
was established in France at the close of the Seven Years' War, and by
which the French service so brilliantly profited in the War of American
Independence, was worked on the old lines of Hoste's treatise.
Morogues' Tactique Navale was its text-book, and his own teaching
was but a scientific and intelligent elaboration of a system from which
the British service under the impulse of Anson, Hawke, and Boscawen
was already shaking itself free.
Much of the old learning which the volume contains is of course of
little more than antiquarian interest, but the bulk of it in the opinion of
those best able to judge should be found of living value. All systems of
tactics must rest ultimately on the dominant weapon in use, and
throughout the sailing period the dominant weapon was, as now, the
gun. In face of so fundamental a resemblance no tactician can afford to

ignore the sailing system merely because the method of propulsion and
the nature of the material have changed. It is not the principles of
tactics that such changes affect, but merely the method of applying
them.
Of even higher present value is the process of thought, the line of
argument by which the old tacticians arrived at their conclusions good
and bad. In studying the long series of Instructions we are able to
detach certain attitudes of mind which led to the atrophy of principles
essentially good, and others which pushed the system forward on
healthy lines and flung off obsolete restraints. In an art so shifting and
amorphous as naval tactics, the difference between health and disease
must always lie in a certain vitality of mind with which it must be
approached and practised. It is only in the history of tactics, under all
conditions of weapons, movement and material, that the conditions of
that vitality can be studied.
For a civilian to approach the elucidation of such points without
professional assistance would be the height of temerity, and my thanks
therefore are particularly due for advice and encouragement to Admiral
Sir Cyprian Bridge, Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Custance,
Rear-Admiral H.S.H. Prince Louis of Battenberg, and to Captain Slade,
Captain of the Royal Naval College. To Sir Reginald Custance and
Professor Laughton I am under a special obligation, for not only have
they been kind enough to read the proofs of the work, but they have
been indefatigable in offering suggestions, the one from his high
professional knowledge and the other from his unrivalled learning in
naval history. Any value indeed the work may be found to possess must
in a large measure be attributed to them. Nor can I omit to mention the
valuable assistance which I have received from Mr. Ferdinand Brand
and Captain Garbett, R.N., in unearthing forgotten material in the
Libraries of the Admiralty and the United Service Institution.
I have also the pleasure of expressing my obligations to the Earl of
Dartmouth, the Earl of St. Germans, and Vice-Admiral Sir Charles
Knowles, Bart., for the use of the documents in their possession, as
well as to many others whose benefits to the Society will be found duly

noted in the body of the work.

CONTENTS

PART I.--EARLY TUDOR PERIOD
1. INTRODUCTORY. ALONSO DE CHAVES ON SAILING
TACTICS 3 Espejo de Navegantes, circa 1530 6
2. INTRODUCTORY. AUDLEY'S FLEET ORDERS, circa 1530 14
Orders to be used by the King's Majesty's Navy by the Sea 15
3. INTRODUCTORY. THE ADOPTION OF SPANISH TACTICS BY
HENRY VIII 18 Lord Lisle, 1545, No. 1 20 " " No. 2 23

PART II.--ELIZABETHAN AND
JACOBEAN
INTRODUCTORY. THE ELIZABETHAN ORIGIN OF RALEGH'S
INSTRUCTIONS 27 Sir Walter Ralegh, 1617 36

PART III.--CAROLINGIAN
1. INTRODUCTORY. THE ATTEMPT TO APPLY LAND
FORMATIONS TO THE FLEET 49 Lord Wimbledon, 1625. No. 1 52
" " No. 2 61 " " No. 3 63
2. INTRODUCTORY. THE SHIP-MONEY FLEETS, circa 1635 73
The Earl of Lindsey, 1635 77

PART IV.--THE FIRST DUTCH WAR
1. INTRODUCTORY. ENGLISH AND DUTCH ORDERS ON THE
EVE OF THE WAR, 1648-53 81 Parliamentary Orders,