of the enemy's, and there to engage with
them." The precise force of "steer with" is not immediately apparent to
us to-day, nor does it seem to have been perfectly clear then; for the
question was put to the captain of the flag-ship,--the heroic Gardiner,
--"You have been asked if the admiral did not express some uneasiness at
Captain Andrews"--of the van ship in the action--"not seeming to
understand the 19th Article of the Fighting Instructions; Do not you
understand that article to relate to our van particularly when the two
fleets are [already] in a parallel line of battle to each other?" (As
TT, F3). _Answer_: "I apprehended it in the situation" [not parallel]
"we were in[1] if the word _For_ were instead of the word _With_, he
would, I apprehend, have steered directly _for_ the van ship of the
Enemy." _Question_. "As the 19th Article expresses to steer with the van
of the enemy, if the leading ship had done so, in the oblique line we
were in with the enemy, and every ship had observed it the same, would
it not have prevented our rear coming to action at all, at least within
a proper distance?" _Answer_: "Rear, and van too." "Steer with"
therefore meant, to the Court and to Gardiner, to steer parallel to the
enemy,--possibly likewise abreast,--and if the fleets were already
parallel the instruction would work; but neither the articles
themselves, nor Byng by his signals, did anything to effect parallelism
before making the signal to engage.

The captain of the ship sternmost in passing, which became the van when
the fleet tacked together according to the Instructions and signals,
evidently shared Gardiner's impression; when about, he steered parallel
to--"with"--the French, who had the wind nearly abeam. The mischief was
that the ships ahead of him in passing were successively more and more
distant from the enemy, and if they too, after tacking, steered with the
latter, they would never get any nearer. The _impasse_ is clear. Other
measures doubtless would enable an admiral to range his fleet parallel
to the enemy at any chosen distance, by taking a position himself and
forming the fleet on his ship; or, in this particular instance, Byng
being with the van as it, on the starboard tack, was passing the enemy
(B3 B3), could at any moment have brought his fleet parallel to the
French by signalling the then van ship to keep away a certain amount,
the rest following in her wake. Nothing to that effect being in the
Instr