[2] The obsolete meaning of 'communicate' is to 'share' or
'participate,' to 'enjoy in common.'



_THE EARL OF LINDSEY_, 1635.

_Such instructions as were given in the Voyage in 1635 by the Right
Honourable Robert, Earl of Lindsey_.[1]

[+Monson's Naval Tracts, Book III. Extract+.]


Art. 18. If we happen to descry any fleet at sea which we may probably
know or conjecture designs to oppose, encounter or affront us, I will
first strive to get the wind (if I be to leeward), and so shall the
whole fleet in due order do the like. And when we shall join battle no
ship shall presume to assault the admiral, vice-admiral or
rear-admiral, but only myself, my vice-admiral or rear-admiral, if we
be able to reach them; and the other ships are to match themselves
accordingly as they can, and to secure one another as cause shall
require, not wasting their powder at small vessels or victuallers, nor
firing till they come side to side.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This was a fleet of forty sail, designed, under colour of securing
the sovereignty of the Seas and protecting commerce against pirates, to
assist Spain as far as possible against the French and Dutch. It never
fought.