WILLIAM III AND ANNE I.

RUSSELL, 1691 II.

ROOKE, 1703 LORD TORRINGTON, TOURVILLE AND HOSTE INTRODUCTORY No one document probably possesses so much importance for the history of naval tactics as the instructions issued by Admiral Russell in 1691.

Yet it is a remarkable thing that their tenour was unknown--indeed their existence was wholly unsuspected--until a copy of them was happily discovered in Holland by Sir William Laird Clowes.

By him it was presented to the United Service Institution, and the thanks of the Society are due to him and the Institution that these instructions are now at last available for publication.
They form part of a complete printed set of Fleet Instructions, entitled 'Instructions made by the Right Honourable Edward Russell, admiral, in the year 1691, for the better ordering of the fleet in sailing by day and night, and in fighting.' Besides the Fighting Instructions we have a full set of signals both for day and night properly indexed, instructions for sailing in a fog, instructions to be observed by younger captains to the elder, instructions for masters, pilots, ketches, hoys, and smacks attending the fleet, and the usual instructions for the encouragement of captains and companies of fireships, small frigates and ketches.