By midday on the 22nd all was in order for the squadron to go forward to the final fight. The tides now were running higher every day, and the next tide would probably serve. That afternoon Rear-Admiral Pocock (afterwards Sir George, and a very distinguished commander), the Second in Command of the East Indies squadron, came up the Hooghly rowing up from Calcutta in his barge. He had hurried up to join, in the hope of being in time to see something of the fighting. He had left his flagship, the _Cumberland_, at Balasore, unable to enter the river owing to the same low tides that had during the past few days delayed the _Kent_ and her two consorts in approaching Chandernagore. With Admiral Watson’s sanction, Pocock hoisted his flag for the battle on board the _Tyger_, to lead the line. At dusk that evening, as soon as it could be done without observation by the enemy, boats crept ahead quietly and lashed lanterns to the masts of the sunken vessels, so screened as to show their light only in the direction of the English ships. By means of these the ships were to be guided before daybreak next morning between the obstacles and across the danger zone where the French had marked the range, past the heavy battery that overlooked the sunken ships. The order to go forward was given at daybreak. Within five minutes they were on the move. Anchors were silently weighed between 5 and 6 a.m., and on the top of the flood tide the three ships, the _Tyger_ leading, and the _Kent_ and _Salisbury_ in her wake, glided ahead through the water with the least possible noise. Apparently their getting under way was not observed. Admiral Watson’s plan of battle was to bring-to directly opposite the river face of Fort d’Orleans within pistol shot. The _Tyger_ was to lead on until she came in front of the further bastion of the river face of the fort, the north-east or “flagstaff bastion,” as it was called, and then drop anchor. The _Kent_ was to anchor between the two river front bastions at the north-west and south-east angles of the fort, directly facing the curtain and the eight-gun ravelin covering the main gate. The _Salisbury_ was to post herself opposite the south-east, or St. Joseph, bastion. As the _Tyger_, a few minutes before six o’clock, neared the battery covering the sunken ships, the French ashore sounded the alarm. Apparently they were surprised. The soldiers in the first battery merely fired a few rounds at the leading ship as she passed by, a dim spectre in the half-light, and then the men in the battery cleared out at a run, and fell back to join the main garrison inside the fort. For their part the three British men-of-war passed on for their appointed stations without replying with a single shot.