ala_ can mean nothing but 'line abreast,' 'line ahead' being strictly
forbidden.

[8] This, of course, refers to fire tactics ashore. The meaning is that
a ship, when she has delivered her fire, cannot retire by countermarch
and leave her next in file to deliver its fire in turn. The whole
system, it will be seen, is based on end-on fire, as a preparation for
boarding and small-arm fighting.

[9] _Viniere toda junta puesta in ala_.

[10] This sentence in the original is incomplete, running on into the
next chapter. For clearness the construction has been altered in the
translation.

[11] This remarkable evolution is a little obscure. The Spanish has '_y
moviendo asimismo los otros del otro bordo, aquellos que tienen sus
carretones que andan per cima de cubierta y toldo_.'

[12] _Versos_, breech-loading pieces of the secondary armament of ships,
and for aiming boats. Bases were of the high penetration or 'culverin'
type.

[13] _Dando barrenos_. This curious duty of the armed boats he has more
fully explained in the section on single ship actions, as follows: 'The
ships being grappled, the boat ready equipped should put off to the
enemy's ship under her poop, and get fast hold of her, and first cut
away her rudder, or at least jam it with half a dozen wedges in such
wise that it cannot steer or move, and if there is a chance for more,
without being seen, bore half a dozen auger holes below the water-line,
so that the ship founders.'

The rest of the chapter is concerned with the treatment of the dead and
wounded, pursuit of the enemy when victory is won, and the refitting of
the fleet.

AUDLEY'S FLEET ORDERS,
_circa_ 1530

INTRODUCTORY

The instructions drawn up by Thomas Audley by order of Henry VIII may
be taken as the last word in England of the purely mediaeval time,
before the development of gunnery, and particularly of broadside fire,
had sown the seeds of more modern tactics. They were almost certainly
drafted from long-established precedents, for Audley was a lawyer.
The document is undated, but since Audley is mentioned without any
rank or title, it was probably before November 1531, when he became
serjeant-at-law and king's serjeant, and certainly before May 1632
when he was knighted. It was at this time that Henry VIII was plunging
into his Reformation policy, and had every reason to be prepared for
complications abroad, and particularly with Spain, which was then the
leading naval Power.