follows:--'The several admirals to be in square bodies' (that is, each
flag officer would command a division or sub-squadron formed in three
ranks of three files), 'and to give their broadsides by threes and so
fall off. The rear-admiral to stand for a general reserve, and not to
engage himself without great cause.'[2] The confusion, however, must
have been considerable and the difference of opinion great as to how
far the new orders were binding; for the 'Journal of the Vanguard'
merely notes that a council was called on the 11th 'wherein some
things were debated touching the well ordering of the fleet,' and with
this somewhat contemptuous entry the subject is dismissed.

Still it must be said that on the whole these orders are a great
advance over anything we know of in Elizabethan times, and
particularly in the careful provisions for mutual support they point
to a happy reversion to the ideas which De Chaves had formulated, and
which the Elizabethans had too drastically abandoned.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 'Journal of the Vanguard' (Essex's flagship), and Cecil to Essex,
_S.P. Dom. Car. I_, xi.

[2] 'Journal of the Expedition,' _S. P. Dom. Car., I_, x. 67.



_LORD WIMBLEDON_, 1625, _No._ 1, _Oct._ 3.

[+State Papers Domestic, Car. I, ix.+]