86.
II ORDERS ISSUED DURING THE WAR 1653 AND 1654 INTRODUCTORY The earliest known 'Fighting Instructions' in any language which aimed at a single line ahead as a battle formation, were issued by the Commonwealth's 'generals-at-sea' on March 29, 1653, in the midst of the Dutch War.

This is placed beyond doubt by an office copy amongst the Duke of Portland's MSS.

at Welbeck Abbey.[1] It is of high importance for the history of naval tactics that we are at last able to fix the date of these memorable orders.

Endless misapprehension on the subject of our battle formations during the First Dutch War has been caused by a chronological error into which Mr.Granville Penn was led in his _Memorials of Penn_ (Appendix L).

Sir William Penn's copy of these Instructions is merely dated 'March 1653,'[2] and his biographer hazarded the very natural conjecture that, as this is an 'old style' date, it meant 'March 1654.' This would have been true of any day in March before the 25th, but as we now can fix the date as the 29th, we know the year is really 1653 and not 1654.[3] There was perhaps some anxiety on Mr.Penn's part to get his hero some share in the orders, and as William Penn was not appointed one of the 'generals-at-sea' till December 2, 1653, he could not officially have had the credit of orders issued in the previous March.