Nor to any one gifted with imagination and a love of the beautiful can the following picture make an ineffectual appeal. For, after the above instructions had been carried out, the admiral was to cause to be sung the evening hymn to our Lady before her image, after which all lights were to be put out except those in the cabins of the gentlemen, who may have lamps trimmed with water covered with oil, but neither candles nor any other kind of light, owing to the risk of fire. The grandeur of these old ships with their plentiful freeboard towering high above water, pitching backwards and forwards to the swell of the sea, their highly coloured hulls lit up by the last rays of a glowing sunset, and the strong rough voices of the crew singing their solemn plain-chant as the freshening breeze wafted it to leeward—such an incident would have impressed itself on our minds scarcely less forcibly than the massive _Mauretania_ to-day racing over the Atlantic eastward with the sun sinking astern, her masthead, port and starboard lights showing, while the rich notes of a grand piano come floating out from the luxurious drawing-room. The admiral was further to appoint persons who should see that all the crew not kept up on duty were to retire—soldiers and officers alike. At the stern of the ship a cresset with flaming combustibles was to burn so that every one might recognise the admiral’s ship and follow, no other vessel being allowed to carry such a fire. But if the fleet contained a vice-admiral, he was allowed to carry just such a light, but the admiral must then carry two instead of one. The ship was also to carry a large lantern in which were three or four great lamps with great lights to make a powerful illumination. The use of this lantern in place of the cresset was when the wind was blowing hard or from astern, and it became necessary to put out the cresset lest the ship should catch fire. At break of day the “two nimble ships” which sailed some distance ahead of the fleet were to come back and salute the admiral as at nightfall. They were then to take their orders for the day, go on ahead again and keep just in sight. At sunrise a fanfare was to be sounded on the trumpets, the other ships to salute as at sunset, the admiral’s ship keeping under easy sail until they had done so. Then “at such hour of the morning as shall please you your chaplain” is to say a dry Mass.[72]