aking in all the flags before going to
engage. It was the ruin of Spragge in the battle of August '73 by taking
his flag in his boat, which gave the enemy an opportunity to discover
his motion, when at the same [time] we saw three flags flying on board
the main topmast-head of three ships which Tromp had quitted.'

[22] _Admiralty MS._ No. 31.

[23] _Admiralty MS._ Nos. 32 and 33.

[24] The _Admiralty MS._ has the _Observation_: 'By reason that guns
are not so well to be distinguished at the latter end of a battle from
chose of the enemy, sky-rockets would be proper signals.' This appears
to be the earliest recorded suggestion for the use of rockets for naval
signalling.

II

MEDITERRANEAN ORDERS, 1678

INTRODUCTORY

In 1677 Narbrough had been sent for the second time as
commander-in-chief to the Mediterranean, to deal with the Barbary
corsairs. To enable him to operate more effectively against Tripoli,
arrangements were on foot to establish a base for him at Malta, and
meanwhile he had been using the Venetian port of Zante. It was at this
time that Charles II, in a last effort to throw off the yoke of Louis
XIV, had married his eldest niece, the Princess Mary, to the French
king's arch-enemy William of Orange, and relations between France and
England were at the highest tension. Preparations were set on foot in
the British dockyards for equipping a 'grand fleet' of eighty sail; on
February 15 was issued a new and enlarged commission to Narbrough
making him 'admiral of his majesty's fleet in the Straits'; Sicily,
which the French had occupied, was hurriedly evacuated; Duquesne, who
commanded the Toulon squadron, was expecting to be attacked at any
moment, and Colbert gave him strict orders to keep out of the British
admiral's way.[1]

It will be seen that it was in virtue of his new commission, and in
expectation of encountering a superior French force, that Narbrough
issued his orders, and they may be profitably compared with those of
Lord Sandwich on the eve of the Second Dutch War as the typical
Fighting Instructions for a small British fleet. No collision however
occurred; for Louis could not face the threatened coalition between
Spain, Holland, and England, and was forced to assent to a general
peace, which was signed at Nymwegen in the following September.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Corbett, _England in the Mediterranean_, ii. 97-104. The official
correspondence will be found in Mr. Tanner's _Calendar of