Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 | Page 7

Duro, _De algunas obras desconocidas de Cosmografia y
de Namgaaon, &c._ Reprinted from the Revista de Navegacion y
Comercio. Madrid, 1894-5.
[2] _Armada Española desde la union de los Reines de Castilla y de
Aragon_.
[3] _Entrar y salir_--lit. 'to go in and come out,' a technical military
expression used of light cavalry. It seems generally to signify short
sudden attacks on weak points.
[4] Here follow directions for telling off a fourth of the largest boats in
the fleet for certain duties which are sufficiently explained in the
section on 'Battle' below.
[5] _Unos en pos de otros á la hila_--lit. one behind the other in file.
[6] _En escuadrones ó en ala_. In military diction these words meant
'deep formation' and 'single line.' Here probably ala means line abreast.
See next note.
[7] Cado uno de los escuadrones debe ir en ala. Here escuadrone must
mean 'squadron' in the modern sense of a division, and from the context
ala can mean nothing but 'line abreast,' 'line ahead' being strictly
forbidden.
[8] This, of course, refers to fire tactics ashore. The meaning is that a
ship, when she has delivered her fire, cannot retire by countermarch
and leave her next in file to deliver its fire in turn. The whole system, it
will be seen, is based on end-on fire, as a preparation for boarding and
small-arm fighting.
[9] Viniere toda junta puesta in ala.
[10] This sentence in the original is incomplete, running on into the

next chapter. For clearness the construction has been altered in the
translation.
[11] This remarkable evolution is a little obscure. The Spanish has '_y
moviendo asimismo los otros del otro bordo, aquellos que tienen sus
carretones que andan per cima de cubierta y toldo_.'
[12] Versos, breech-loading pieces of the secondary armament of ships,
and for aiming boats. Bases were of the high penetration or 'culverin'
type.
[13] Dando barrenos. This curious duty of the armed boats he has more
fully explained in the section on single ship actions, as follows: 'The
ships being grappled, the boat ready equipped should put off to the
enemy's ship under her poop, and get fast hold of her, and first cut
away her rudder, or at least jam it with half a dozen wedges in such
wise that it cannot steer or move, and if there is a chance for more,
without being seen, bore half a dozen auger holes below the water-line,
so that the ship founders.'
The rest of the chapter is concerned with the treatment of the dead and
wounded, pursuit of the enemy when victory is won, and the refitting of
the fleet.

AUDLEY'S FLEET ORDERS, circa 1530
INTRODUCTORY
The instructions drawn up by Thomas Audley by order of Henry VIII
may be taken as the last word in England of the purely mediæval time,
before the development of gunnery, and particularly of broadside fire,
had sown the seeds of more modern tactics. They were almost certainly
drafted from long-established precedents, for Audley was a lawyer. The
document is undated, but since Audley is mentioned without any rank
or title, it was probably before November 1531, when he became
serjeant-at-law and king's serjeant, and certainly before May 1632
when he was knighted. It was at this time that Henry VIII was plunging

into his Reformation policy, and had every reason to be prepared for
complications abroad, and particularly with Spain, which was then the
leading naval Power.
The last two articles, increasing the authority of the council of war,
were probably insisted on, as Mr. Oppenheim has pointed out in view
of Sir Edward Howard's attempts on French ports in 1512 and 1513, the
last of which ended in disaster.[1]
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Administration of the Royal Navy, p. 63.

_ORDERS TO BE USED BY THE KING'S MAJESTY'S NAVY BY
THE SEA_.
[+Brit. Mus. Harleian MSS. 309, fol. 42, et seq.+[1]]
[Extract.]
If they meet with the enemy the admiral must apply to get the wind of
the enemy by all the means he can, for that is the advantage. No private
captain should board the admiral enemy but the admiral of the English,
except he cannot come to the enemy's, as the matter may so fall out
without they both the one seek the other. And if they chase the enemy
let them that chase shoot no ordnance till he be ready to board him, for
that will let[2] his ship's way.
Let every ship match equally as near as they can, and leave some
pinnaces at liberty to help the overmatched. And one small ship when
they shall join battle [is] to be attending on the admiral to relieve him,
for the overcoming of the admiral is a great discouragement of the rest
of the other side.
In case you