[239] This is perhaps due to the fact that the English Lord Admirals adopted a ship in full sail upon the obverse of their seals. We have no specimen of the reverse or counter-seal earlier than that of Nottingham. As the anchor is found on the reverse of this seal it is possible that it was upon the reverse in the earlier seals. [240] The author is indebted to Mr R. G. Marsden for this reference. [241] Reproduced in Hakluyt Society's edition of _Hakluyt's Voyages_, IV, 208. The engraving may be dated circa 1600. [242] A conventional design of an anchor and cable, in which the cable is entwined about (or, as seamen say, foul of) the stock and shank. [243] The seal of the Royal Commissioners for the High Admiralty of England. [244] A variation of it, in which the cable passes loosely through the ring and ends in extravagant flourishes on either side, was in use by Pepys in 1673. [245] Plate VIII, fig. 1. On the seals the anchor was vertical, but in the flags it was usually placed horizontally. The foul anchor in the Admiralty seal since 1725 has, however, been of a design similar to that on the York Water Gate. [246] _S. P. D. Chas II._ LXVI. 74. [247] _Pepys MSS._ Miscellanea, IX. [248] _Pepys MSS._ Miscellanea, IX. [249] _Ibid._ Naval Minutes. [250] Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the term "Admiral" was used of the ship as well as of the officer in command. The rank, moreover, until the latter part of the seventeenth century, was purely local and temporary, and simply denoted the senior officer for the time being of the ships in company. [251] See lists in Nicolas, _History of the Royal Navy_, I, 435, and II, 524. It is a curious circumstance that in nearly all these cases the fleet was directed against Scotland. One exception to the rule occurs in 1315 when John of Argyle was appointed "Captain of our fleet of ships which we are shortly about to send to the Scottish parts." Under him were placed "William de Crey and Thomas de Hewys, Admirals of the fleet of the King's ships," who were "commanded that they be obedient and responsive to the same John." [252] _Vide_ Nicolas, _History of the Royal Navy_, I, 178. [253] Ensign, in the original sense of insignia; the modern "ensign" does not appear to have been used in the English navy before the latter part of Elizabeth's reign. [254] Froissart, I, 255. [255] _Harl. MS._ 309, fol. 4. [256] I.e. in _both_ the main-mizen and the bonaventure (or after) mizen tops; the large ships of this period were four-masted. [257] _S. P. Henry VIII_, CCV, 160. [258] "Though the use of a Rear Admiral is but a late invention in comparison with the other two and is allowed but the ordinary pay of a Captain" (_Naval Tracts of Sir Wm Monson_ (N. R. S.), IV, 1).