III. LORD LISLE, 1545



ALONSO DE CHAVES ON SAILING TACTICS

INTRODUCTORY


The following extract from the _Espejo de Navegantes_, or
_Seamen's Glass_, of Alonso de Chaves serves to show the
development which naval tactics had reached at the dawn of the sailing
epoch. The treatise was apparently never published. It was discovered
by Captain Fernandez Duro, the well-known historian of the Spanish
navy, amongst the manuscripts in the library of the Academy of History
at Madrid. The exact date of its production is not known; but Alonso
de Chaves was one of a group of naval writers and experts who
flourished at the court of the Emperor Charles V in the first half of
the sixteenth century.[1] He was known to Hakluyt, who mentions him in
connection with his own cherished idea of getting a lectureship in
navigation established in London. 'And that it may appear,' he writes
in dedicating the second edition of his _Voyages_ to the lord
admiral, 'that this is no vain fancy nor device of mine it may please
your lordship to understand that the late Emperor Charles the
Fifth ... established not only a Pilot-Major for the examination of such
as sought to take charge of ships in that voyage' (_i.e._ to the
Indies), 'but also founded a notable lecture of the Art of Navigation
which is read to this day in the Contractation House at Seville. The
Readers of the Lecture have not only carefully taught and instructed