So far as is known no fresh complete set of Fighting Instructions was issued before the outbreak of the war, and as Monck and Sandwich were still among the leading figures at the admiralty it is probable that those used in the last Dutch and Spanish Wars were continued.

The four orders here given are supplementary to them, providing for the formation of line abreast, and for forming from that order a line ahead to port or starboard.

It is possible however that no other orders had yet been officially issued, and that these simple directions were regarded by Sandwich as all that were necessary for so small a squadron.
FOOTNOTE: [1] _Domestic Calendar_, 1664-5, pp.

181, 183.
_THE EARL OF SANDWICH, Feb.

1, 1665_.
[+Duke of Somerset's MSS., printed by the Historical MSS.