The instructions just quoted are plainly an ideal set; they represent the best experience of the age, but there is no indication that they were ever actually employed at sea.
The other important set of instructions of the early sixteenth century is by no means so full as that of Conflans, but it was actually used at sea, and reappears in various guises until the middle of the century. It seems to have been first drawn up by Philippe de Cleves, to have been used by the Emperor Charles V in his voyage from Flanders to Spain in 1517, and finally to have been incorporated, with slight alterations by Jehan Bytharne, Gunner in Ordinary to the King of France, in his Livre de Guerre tant par mer que par terre[360] written in 1543. The flag signals, which Bytharne says he had himself seen made at sea, present no improvement on those already cited, and they may, as given by Bytharne, be summarised as follows:
To assemble the Captains for Council or to speak to them. The Captains to bring their best pilot and most experienced officer.
A square banner tied in a weft[361] in the main mizen.
On sighting strange ships.
A square banner tied in a weft[362] halfway up the shrouds on the side on which the ships are seen.
If the strange ships are numerous, then
Two flags as above, one over the other.
If the Admiral, on receiving the above signal from one of the scouting ships, desires that they should go forward and reconnoitre.
A banner on the fore mast inclined forward.