[374] "nous ne sums tenus faire restitution ne amende si nulle chose eit esté fait ou prise par nous en ladite guerre; quar il est usage et ley de meer que de choses faites ou prises sur meer en guerre meisement ou ledit baukan soit levée ne doit estre fait restitution n'amende d'une partie ne d'autre." 'Baucan,' cognate with 'beacon,' must not be confused with 'bauçan.'
[376] This and the two following sections are in substance a revision of a pamphlet Nelson's Signals, The Evolution of the Signal Flags, written by me in 1908 and published for the Admiralty by H.M. Stationery Office. I am indebted to the Controller of that Department for permission to make use of it in this work.
[377] Corbett, Fighting Instructions (N. R. S.), p. 99.
[378] Possibly as a result of the first collision with the Dutch, Tromp appears to have been ahead of the English in the matter of signals.
[379] Shortly after 1756 the white balls disappear, and a white square takes their place, the flag thus becoming what is now familiarly called the Blue Peter. By Rodney's time this flag at the mainmast head had become the signal to recall everyone to his ship, whence its present use to denote that the ship is about to sail.
[380] A flag is said to be "pierced" when it has a small square of another colour in the centre.
[381] In his memoirs it is stated that in 1746 he had written a book on Signals and Naval Evolutions.
[382] Possibly because with a "table" of 16 squares a side he was enabled to make 256 signals, with two flags only to each "hoist," whereas by the simple numerary method he could of course only make 99 with less than three flags.
[383] J. K. Laughton, Letters and Papers of Lord Barham (N. R. S.), i, 340.