No attempt appears to have been made to divide an English fleet into squadrons with distinctive signs until the reign of Henry VIII. After the rather unsatisfactory battle with the French fleet off Portsmouth in July, 1545, Henry, who was of no mean ability in naval affairs[301], had evidently seen the need for better organisation, for when the fleet put into the Channel to deter the French from raiding the Sussex coast it was divided into three divisions distinguished by having the English flag at different mastheads, as is shown by the orders issued for the occasion: ... every ship appoynted to the battaill shall beare one flag of saint George's crosse in his mayne toppe ... and every ship appoynted to the vanward shall beare one flag of sainte George's crosse in his fore toppe ... and every Shipp Galliasse pynnesse and Shalupe appoynted to the wyng shall have in ther mesyn toppe one flag of saint George's crosse[302]. This seems to have been the only occasion on which an English fleet was divided into squadrons distinguished by means of the same flag flown at different mastheads. In two years from that date Henry was dead, and the organisation of the navy sustained a set-back from which it took many years to recover. It was not until the results of the first day's fighting against the Spanish Armada in 1588 had shown the necessity for better organisation that any further attempt was made to divide the fleet into squadrons. There is no indication in the State Papers of the steps then taken to mark the squadrons, but from the fact that the arrangement was impromptu and that there was no time available for providing special colours it is probable that only the squadron leaders were distinguished by their flags. In his expedition against Lisbon in the following year Drake made an attempt to remedy the prevailing want of method. The Armada campaign, as we have seen, had taught the sailors the danger of entirely discarding the old military methods; they had learnt the strength that the Spaniards gained by their squadronal system, and under the soldiers' influence we find an elaborate scheme for "squadronising" the fleet that is something entirely new, and obviously founded on the existing military system[303]. Here, again, we know nothing of the method adopted to distinguish the squadrons, but it seems to have been largely a paper one. Such was the first attempt to remedy the vices of the radical revolution which the sailor-admirals had brought about. That it smacked too much of the camp to please the seamen is not to be doubted. Excellent as it looked on paper, for some reason it took no hold; and for a thorough and lasting fleet system the English navy had to wait till half a century later, when the exploits of the new school of soldiers had so entirely weaned the country from its "idolatry of Neptune" that Cromwell and his soldier-admirals were able to force their ideas upon the seamen[304].