"In due acknowledgment on their part of the King of Great Britain's right to have his flag respected in the seas hereafter mentioned, shall and do declare and agree, that whatever ship or vessels belonging to the said United Provinces, whether vessels of war or others, or whether single or in fleets, shall meet in any of the seas from Cape Finisterre to the middle point of the land Van Staten, in Norway, with any ships or vessels belonging to His Majesty of Great Britain, whether these ships be single or in great number, if they carry His Majesty's of Great Britain flag or Jack, the aforesaid Dutch vessels or ships shall strike their flag and lower their topsail in the same manner and with as much respect as hath at any time, or in any place, been formerly practised towards any ships of His Majesty of Great Britain or his predecessors, by any ships of the States General or their predecessors."[57]
The "Jack" of His Majesty Charles II., which was the sign of His Majesty's ships, was the two-crossed "additional" Jack of his father, which had been restored to the navy at the Restoration, and as shown on the Naseby (20).
This Jack was flying at the bow and on the mizzen of the ships of war, and at the stern was the sign of nationality, the "ensign red" with the St. George cross.
The ensign red which the ships of that royal navy bore when they thus won the final supremacy of the sea from the navy of Holland, was the flag worn also by the British merchantmen of the time, and on them witnessed the obtaining of that other command, then won from the Dutch, "the command of the trade, which is the command of the riches of the world." To this victory the merchant mariner, by his seamanship and energy, had done his full share, and had won his right to wear it as his own. Worthily, therefore, at this present day do the merchant ships of Britain wear the red ensign on every sea, in every clime, in rightful acknowledgment of the part their predecessors played in the gaining of the supremacy of the sea.
This supremacy, and still more the spirit of sea supremacy, has ever remained dominant in the souls of British seamen.
When in March, 1889, the harbour of Apia, in Samoa, was devastated by a terrific cyclone, and all the ships of other nations dragged their anchors and were driven ashore, it was with this native spirit that the British sailors slipped their cables and set out for their ocean home on the open sea. As the British man-of-war breasted the hurricane and battled through the breakers at the harbour mouth, the American sailors on their flagship Rodney, sinking with fires extinguished[58] inside the bar, cheered her as she passed, a cheer which rang round the world, and the bold Calliope, with her British ensign above her, and her "hearts of oak" within, won her way to safety far out in the wildest storm.
With such widespread venture in her people, such spirit in her ships and record in her flag, no wonder is it that the British Navy and the British merchant marine exceed in number and in power those of any other nation on the globe. Well, therefore, with lusty throats and cheerful hearts, Britannia's children sing:
"Rule, Britannia; Britannia rules the waves!"