THE EARL OF LINDSEY, 1635.
Such instructions as were given in the Voyage in 1635 by the Right Honourable Robert, Earl of Lindsey.[1]
[+Monson's Naval Tracts, Book III. Extract+.]
Art. 18. If we happen to descry any fleet at sea which we may probably know or conjecture designs to oppose, encounter or affront us, I will first strive to get the wind (if I be to leeward), and so shall the whole fleet in due order do the like. And when we shall join battle no ship shall presume to assault the admiral, vice-admiral or rear-admiral, but only myself, my vice-admiral or rear-admiral, if we be able to reach them; and the other ships are to match themselves accordingly as they can, and to secure one another as cause shall require, not wasting their powder at small vessels or victuallers, nor firing till they come side to side.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] This was a fleet of forty sail, designed, under colour of securing the sovereignty of the Seas and protecting commerce against pirates, to assist Spain as far as possible against the French and Dutch. It never fought.