A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688Hannay, David
History
A Short History of the Royal Navy, 1217 to 1688
Hannay, David
Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History
lights--one great lantern on the poop, and two smaller lights in the
midst of the bonaventure mizen shrouds. The bonaventure mizen was a
very small mast at the extreme end of the ship, where the smaller
mast of a yawl is now placed. The admiral of the Vanwarde carried two
lights, and the admiral of the Wing one light, on the bonaventure
shrouds. The last articles of the sailing orders were, "The watch
wourde in the night shalbe thus, 'God save King Henrye'; thother shall
aunswer, 'And long to raign over us.'" This has been supposed to be the
germ of the National Anthem.
In strength the fleet was divided as follows:--The Van consisted of
24 ships, carrying 3800 men, the Battle of 40, with 6846 men. Lisle
himself was in this division, with the flag in the =Henry Grace à
Dieu=. The Wing was of 40 smaller vessels, carrying only 2092 men.
Perhaps the most interesting of the admiral's fighting orders is the
third--
"Item, when we shall se a convenient tyme to fight with thenimies, our
Vanward shall make with ther Vanwarde, if they have any; and if they
be in one compenye, our Vanward (takyng thadvauntage of the wynde)
shall set uppon ther foremost ranck, bryngyng them oute of order; and
our Vice-Admirall shall seake to bourd their Vice-Admirall, and every
capitaign shall chose his equall, as nere as he maye."
In the thirty years which had passed since the death of Sir Edward
Howard, some progress had been made towards establishing a recognised
order of battle. Practice, helped no doubt by speculation, had brought
our admirals to see the necessity of a regular method. In this
disposition to stretch all along an enemy, and engage him from end to
end, we have the first indication of that line of battle of which so
much will be heard. It was the natural formation of a fleet relying
on its broadside as its means of offence. But the line of battle may
be left to grow a little more clearly defined before we discuss it.
What is for the present of interest is to point out that the principle
upon which the great majority of our naval battles have been fought,
was present, not in germ, but fully developed, in this third item of
Lisle's orders. It contains, in fact, the whole of the famous Article
XIX. of the Fighting Instructions. The van was to steer with the
enemy's van, the centre with his centre, and the rear with his rear,
and the captains were to take "every man his bird." In time this became
a sheer pedantry, and a burden under which the ablest officers of the
navy chafed for a generation, until a happy accident encouraged them
to throw it off. But in 1545 it was a progress, since any kind of
order was in advance of none at all, and there was no hope of finally
attaining a good system except by a series of experiments,--in other
words, by successively trying everything that was wrong, and rejecting
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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