n for
command. This was an excellent reform but it resulted in making
the navy the property of a social caste from that day to this,
and it made promotion, for a century and more, largely subject to
family influence.

Another effect of the Restoration was to break down the fighting
efficiency of the fleet as it had been in the days of Blake. The
veterans of the First Dutch War fought with their old time courage
and discipline, but the newer elements did not show the same devotion
and initiative. The effect on the material was still worse, for
the fleet became a prey to the cynical dishonesty that Charles
II inspired in every department of his government.

_The Second Dutch War_

Five years after Charles II became king, England was involved in
another war with the Netherlands. There was still bad feeling between
the two peoples, and trading companies in the far east or west
kept up a guerilla warfare which flooded both governments with
complaints. The chief cause seems to have been the desire of the
English Guinea Company to get rid of their Dutch competitors who
persistently undersold them in the slave markets of the West Indies.
Before there was any declaration of war an English squadron was sent
out to attack the Dutch company's settlement on the West African
coast. After this it crossed the Atlantic and took New Amsterdam,
which thereafter became New York. The Dutch retaliated by sending
out one of their squadrons to retake their African post and threaten
the Atlantic colonies. In March, 1665, war was declared.

In this conflict the relative strengths of the two navies were about
the same as in the previous war. The Dutch had made improvements
in their ships, but they still suffered from the lack of unity
in organization and spirit. The first engagement was the battle
of Lowestoft, on June 3, 1665. The English fleet was under the
personal command of the Duke of York, later James II; the Dutch
were led by de Ruyter. The two forces numbered from 80 to 100 ships
each, and strung out as they were, must have extended over nearly
ten miles of sea. The Duke of York formed his fleet in the pattern
that he set by his own "Fighting Instructions," which governed the
tactics of all navies thereafter for a hundred years, namely, the
entire force drawn up in single line. This line bore down abreast
toward the enemy until it reached gunshot, then swung into line
ahead and sailed on a course parallel to that of the enemy. De