e thought suitable,
ordered them to keep away eight points (90 deg.) together (A, A, A). De
Guichen, seeing the danger of the rear, wore his fleet all together
and stood down to succor it. Rodney, finding himself foiled, hauled up
again on the same tack as the enemy, both fleets now heading to the
southward and eastward.[141] Later, he again made signal for battle,
followed an hour after, just at noon, by the order (quoting his own
despatch), "for every ship to bear down and steer for her opposite in
the enemy's line." This, which sounds like the old story of ship to
ship, Rodney explains to have meant her opposite at the moment, not
her opposite in numerical order. His own words are: "In a slanting
position, that my leading ships might attack the van ships of the
enemy's centre division, and the whole British fleet be opposed to
only two thirds of the enemy" (B, B). The difficulty and
misunderstanding which followed seem to have sprung mainly from the
defective character of the signal book. Instead of doing as the
admiral wished, the leading ships (a) carried sail so as to reach
their supposed station abreast their numerical opposite in the order.
Rodney stated afterward that when he bore down the second time, the
French fleet was in a very extended line of battle; and that, had his
orders been obeyed, the centre and rear must have been disabled before
the van could have joined.

[Illustration: Pl. XI. RODNEY & GUICHEN APRIL 17, 1780.]

There seems every reason to believe that Rodney's intentions
throughout were to double on the French, as asserted. The failure
sprang from the signal-book and tactical inefficiency of the fleet;
for which he, having lately joined, was not answerable. But the
ugliness of his fence was so apparent to De Guichen, that he
exclaimed, when the English fleet kept away the first time, that six
or seven of his ships were gone; and sent word to Rodney that if his
signals had been obeyed he would have had him for his prisoner.[142] A
more convincing proof that he recognized the dangerousness of his
enemy is to be found in the fact that he took care not to have the
lee-gage in their subsequent encounters. Rodney's careful plans being
upset, he showed that with them he carried all the stubborn courage of
the most downright fighter; taking his own ship close to the enemy and
ceasing only when the latter hauled off, her foremast and mainyard
gone, and her hull so damaged that she could hardly be