ABSTRACT
After the treatment of the Four Days' Battle, 11-14 June 1666, he inserted a study on the tactical manoeuvres. The Dutch naval forces entered the First Anglo-Dutch War in 1652 with the boarding tactic from our last example still as the principal method of fighting. It is not impossible that the Dutch kept themselves regularly informed about what went on in England concerning the fighting instructions; the great sea wars of the 17th century did not remotely cause the same cast iron separation between the parties as we know it now. And as the principle of a line ahead carried with it a train of regulations, one can imagine that in the Dutch councils of war there were discussions not only about the tactic itself, but also about possible extensions of the fighting instructions with rules for all kinds of situations.
