ity of passing through it to
rejoin their fleet.' This was precisely Rodney's manoeuvre with the
proviso for close order introduced by Pigot. The instruction also
provided for the combining of a numeral to indicate at which number in
the enemy's line the attempt was to be made. No doubt the distinction
between manoeuvres so essentially different might have been more
logically made by entirely different signals.[6] But in practice it
was all that was wanted. It is only posterity that suffers, for in
studying the actions of that time it is generally impossible to tell
from the signal logs or the tactical memoranda which movement the
admiral had in mind. Not only do we never find it specified whether
the signal was made simply or with the pennant over, but admirals seem
to have used the expressions 'breaking' and 'cutting' the line, and
'breaking through,' 'cutting through,' 'passing through,' and 'leading
through,' as well as others, quite indiscriminately of both forms of
the manoeuvre. Thus in Nelson's first, or Toulon, memorandum he speaks
of 'passing through the line' from to-windward, meaning presumably
Howe's manoeuvre, and of 'cutting through' their fleet from to-leeward
when presumably he means Rodney's. In the Trafalgar memorandum he
speaks of 'leading through' and 'cutting' the line from to-leeward,
and of 'cutting through' from to-windward, when he certainly meant to
perform Howe's manoeuvre. Whereas Howe, in his Instruction XXXI. of
1799, uses 'breaking the line' and 'passing through it' indifferently
of both forms.

All we can do is generally to assume that when the attack was to be
made from to-windward Howe's manoeuvre was intended, and Rodney's when
it was made from to-leeward. Yet this is far from being safe
ground. For the signification of the plain signal without the red
pennant over--_i.e._ 'to break through ... and engage on the other
side'--seems to contemplate Howe's manoeuvre being made both from
to-leeward and from to-windward.

The only notable disappearances in Howe's second code (1790) are the
signals for 'doubling,' probably as a corollary of the new
manoeuvre. For, until this device was hit upon, Rodney's method of
breaking the line apparently could only be made effective as a means
of concentration by doubling on the part cut off in accordance with
Hoste's method. This at least is what Clerk of Eldin seems to imply
in some of his diagrams, in so far as he suggests any method of
dealing wi