At 11.50 A.M. the decisive signal was made “for every ship to bear down, and steer for her opposite in the enemy’s line, agreeable to the 21st article of the Additional Fighting Instructions.”  Five minutes later, when the ships, presumably, had altered their course for the enemy, the signal for battle was made, followed by the message that the Admiral’s intention was to engage closely; he expecting, naturally, that every ship would follow the example he purposed to set.  The captain of the ship which in the formation (aa) had been the leader, upon whose action depended that of those near her, unfortunately understood Rodney’s signal to mean that he was to attack the enemy’s leader, not the ship opposite to him at the moment of bearing away.  This ship, therefore, diverged markedly from the Admiral’s course, drawing after her many of the van.  A few minutes before 1 P.M., one of the headmost ships began to engage at long range; but it was not till some time after 1 P.M. that the Sandwich, having received several broadsides, came into close action (S^2) with the second vessel astern from the French Admiral, the Actionnaire, 64.  The latter was soon beat out of the line by the superiority of the Sandwich’s battery, and the same lot befell the ship astern of her,—­probably the Intrepide, 74,—­which came up to close the gap.  Towards 2.30 P.M., the Sandwich, either by her own efforts to close, or by her immediate opponents’ keeping away, was found to be to leeward (S^3) of the enemy’s line; the Couronne (C) being on her weather bow.  The fact was pointed out by Rodney to the captain of the ship, Walter Young, who was then in the lee gangway.  Young, going over to look for himself, saw that it was so, and that the Yarmouth, 64, had hauled off to windward, where she lay with her main and mizzen topsails aback.  Signals were then made to her, and to the Cornwall, 74, to come to closer engagement, they both being on the weather bow of the flagship.

De Guichen, recognising this state of affairs, then or a little later, attributed it to the deliberate purpose of the British Admiral to break his line.  It does not appear that Rodney so intended.  His tactical idea was to concentrate his whole fleet on the French rear and centre, but there is no indication that he now aimed at breaking the line.  De Guichen so construing it, however, gave the signal to wear together, away from the British line.  The effect of this, in any event, would have been to carry his fleet somewhat to leeward; but with ships more or less crippled, taking therefore greater room to manoeuvre, and with the exigency of re-forming the line upon them, the tendency was exaggerated.  The movement which the French called wearing together was therefore differently interpreted by Rodney.  “The action in the centre continued till 4.15 P.M., when M. de Guichen, in the Couronne, the Triomphant, and the Fendant, after engaging the Sandwich