iscussions in the council of war; and in the
variously dated copies which exist of sections of the orders we have
evidence that between the last week in March, when the duke hoisted
his flag, and April 21st, when he put to sea, much time must have been
spent upon the consideration of the tactical problem.[4]

The result was a marked advance. In these ten 'additional
instructions,' for instance, we have for the first time a clear
distinction drawn between attacks from windward and attacks from
leeward. We have also the first appearance of the close-hauled line
ahead, and it is enjoined as a defensive formation when the enemy
attacks from windward. A method of attack from windward is also
provided for the case where the enemy stays to receive it. Amongst
less important developments we have an article making the half-cable's
length, originally enjoined under the Commonwealth, the regular
interval between ships, and others to prevent the line being broken
for the sake of chasing or taking possession of beaten ships. Finally
there are signals for tacking in succession either from the van or the
rear, which must have given the fleet a quite unprecedented increase
of tactical mobility. Nor are we without evidence that increased
mobility was actually exhibited when the new instructions were put to
a practical test.

It was under the old Commonwealth orders as supplemented and modified
by these noteworthy articles of April 1665, that was fought the
memorable action of June 3rd, variously known as the battle of
Lowestoft or the Second Battle of the Texel. It is this action that
Hoste cites as the first in which two fleets engaged in close hauled
line ahead, and kept their formation throughout the day. After two
days' manoeuvring the English gained the wind, and kept it in spite of
all their enemy could do, and the various accounts of the action
certainly give the impression that the evolutions of the English were
smarter and more complex than those of the Dutch. It is true that
about the middle of the action one of the new signals, that for the
rear to tack first, threw the fleet into some confusion, and that
later the van and centre changed places; still, till almost the end,
the duke, or rather Penn, his flag captain, kept at least some control
of the fleet. Granville Penn indeed claims that the duke finally
routed the Dutch by breaking their line, and that he did it
intentionally. But this movement is only mentioned in a has