through one another several times, which exposed
them to be cut off, taken, and mutually to lose several
ships. _Remark_.--This manoeuvre is as bold as it is delicate,
and consummate technical skill is necessary for it to succeed as
happily as it did with the Comte d'Estrees ... in the battle of the
Texel, in the year 1673, for he passed through the Zealand squadron,
weathered it, broke it up, and put the enemy into so great a disorder
that it settled the victory which was still in the balance.'[5]

After pointing out by diagrams various methods of parrying the
manoeuvre, he proceeds: 'I do not see, then, that we need greatly fear
the enemy's passing through us; and I do not even think that this
manoeuvre ought ever to be performed except under one of the three
following conditions: (1) If you are compelled to do it in order to
avoid a greater evil; (2) If the enemy by leaving a great gap in the
midst of his squadrons renders a part of his fleet useless; (3) If
several of his ships are disabled....

'Sometimes you are compelled to pass through the enemy's fleet to
rescue ships that the enemy has cut off, and in this case you must
risk something, but you should observe several precautions: (1) You
should close up to the utmost; (2) You should carry a press of sail
without troubling to fight in passing through the enemy; (3) The ships
that have passed ought to tack the moment they can to prevent the
enemy standing off on the same tack as the fleet that passes through
them.'

It is clear, then, that in the eyes of perhaps the finest fleet leader
of his time, and one of the finest France ever had, a man who
thoroughly understood the value of concentration, the method of
securing it by breaking the line was dangerous and unsound. In this
he thoroughly endorses the views contained in the 'Observations' of
the _Admiralty MS._ and the modifications of the standing order
which they suggest. Indeed, Hoste's remarks on breaking the line are,
in effect, little more than a logical elaboration of those ideas and
suggestions. In the 'Observations' we have the monition not to attempt
the manoeuvre 'unless an enemy press you on a lee shore.' We have the
signal for a squadron breaking the enemy's line, but only in order to
rejoin the main body, and we have the simple method of parrying the
move by tacking with an equal number of ships. The fundamental
principles of the problem in both the English and the French author
are the same,