Raider

1775 Fighting Instructions
for Age of Sail

reviewed by Jon Williams

It's very encouraging to see the amount of scholarship now being done on the Age of Sail. Raider Games' fine series of naval order of battle has now been joined by what is apparently the first in a series of historic naval documents, the Sailing and Fighting Instructions for the Royal Navy circa 1775.

The 1775 Fighting Instructions came down largely intact from Admiral Russel's fighting instructions first published in 1691. Codified in the signal books was the tactical thought of the period, a largely defensive system based on rigid lines of battle, which was to undergo considerable modification in the thirty years following 1775. The 1775 signal book is therefore a good place to start for this series, as it encompasses tactical thought not only for 1775, but for more than a century preceding that date. Much can be learned about tactical systems simply by reading the signals designed to bring them into play.

The 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" white offset booklet consists largely of xeroxed pages from the original signal book, thus preserving the period flavor at a certain cost in readability, at least until the reader gets used to the long S, as in: "in the Case of springing a Leake, or any other D if after that disables your Ship..." York, Russel, Rooke, and the other "naval generals" who assembled the original signal books were neither grammarians nor good spellers, and sometimes it's difficult to see just what they intended with a specific signal. The reader will thus engender a sympathy for period captains, who would have had to puzzle out Rooke's meaning while fighting a hot action with the enemy.

As well as fighting instructions, the signal book includes day and night signals, signals for fog, instructions to officers, captains, masters, and fire- ships, as well as supplementary signals involving the chase. The editor, Bill Leeson, contributes a brief foreword, diagrams of ships and flags, and a very useful glossary of naval terms, which will help those unfamiliar with the period to understand the sometimes dense nautical vocabulary used herein.

This booklet is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the period. It is available in the U.S. from THE COURIER for $3.85, and in the U.K. from Bill Leeson, 5 St. Agnell's Lane Cottages, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. HP2 7HJ, for £ 2.25 plus postage.

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