on the mizen yard-arm or topmast-head, all small frigates
in his squadron are to come under his stern for orders.

Inst. 14th. That if any engagement by day shall continue till night
and the general shall please to anchor, then upon signal given they
all anchor in as good order as may be, the signal being as in the
'Instructions for Sailing'; and if the general please to retreat
without anchoring, the signal to be firing two guns, the one so nigh
the other as the report may be distinguished, and within three minutes
after to do the like with two guns more.

Given under our hands at Portsmouth, this March 29th, 1653.

ROBERT BLAKE.
RICHARD DEANE.
GEORGE MONCK.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Re-issued in March 1654, by Blake, Monck, Disbrowe, and Penn, with
some amendments and verbal alterations. As reissued they are in _Sloane
MSS._ 3232, f. 81, and printed in Granville Penn's _Memorials of Sir
William Penn_, ii. 76. All the important amendments in the new edition,
apart from mere verbal alterations, are given below in notes to the
articles in which they occur.

[2] '_Waft_ (more correctly written _wheft_). It is any flag or ensign
stopped together at the head and middle portion, slightly rolled up
lengthwise, and hoisted at different positions at the after-part of a
ship.'--Admiral Smyth (_Sailors' Word-Book_).

[3] The orders of 1654 have 'one frigate.'

[4] _I.e._ 'formation.'

[5] 1654, 'enemy's ships.'

[6] 1654, 'get.'

[7] 1654, 'or the commander-in-chief.'

[8] 1654, 'immediately.'

[9] 1654, 'so as she is in danger of being sunk or taken, then they.'

[10] 1654, 'to keep on close in a line.'

[11] 1654, 'mizen topmast-head.'

[12] 1654, 'or grain upon pain of severe punishment.' Nothing is more
curious in naval phraseology than the loss of this excellent word
'grain,' or 'grayne,' to express the opposite of 'wake.' To come into a
ship's grain meant to take station ahead of her. There is nothing now
which exactly supplies its place, and yet it has long fallen into
oblivion, so long, indeed, that its existence was unknown to the learned
editors of the new _Oxford Dictionary_. This is to be the more regretted
as its etymology is very obscure. It may, however, be traced with little
doubt to the old Norse 'grein,' a branch or prong, surviving in the word
'grains,' a pronged harpoon or fish spear. From its meaning, 'branch,'
it might seem to be akin to 'stem' and to 'bow,' which is only another
spelling of'bo