266 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



sold for the benefit of the Fishery Society. Then the Earl 

 himself had been snubbed by the Admiralty, and left with 

 a flea in his ear. He wanted a vessel to serve as a " kitchen " 

 to accompany the fleet, and a salary for a secretary; but 

 there being no precedents, the requests were refused. Then 

 he complained that he had not enough flags, and above all 

 that he lacked a standard, which made him "not a little 

 wonder, considering his commission gave him as much power 

 as a Lord Admiral of England or rather more by being 

 General, who is always a representative person of his prince " ; 

 he said he was " a little maimed " without it. 1 



The fleet weighed anchor early on the morning of the 

 7th June, and steered down Channel on its mission. At 

 that time a combined Dutch and French squadron blockaded 

 Dunkirk France, which in January had entered into a treaty 

 with the States for an invasion and partition of the Spanish 

 Netherlands, having declared war against Spain a month 

 before Lindsey left the Downs. There was thus every pros- 

 pect of a collision if the English Admiral carried out the 

 king's wishes, and both the Court and the capital were on 

 the tiptoe of expectation of stirring news. The fleet had 

 scarcely quitted its anchorage when London was full of 

 rumours. The Swallow got credit for having sent to the 

 bottom a Dutch man-of-war before she had even left Deptford. 

 A few days later it was reported that a fight had taken 

 place in the Channel, a violent cannonade having been heard 

 on the English coast, whereat Charles looked anxious and 

 moody. 2 But it was only a peaceful salutation between the 

 English fleet and a Danish man-of-war, " who did their duty " 

 in passing by. On 12th June "certain news" arrived by 

 express from Dungeness that a great battle had been fought 

 off Calais, in which the Hollanders were totally defeated. 

 Authentic despatches from the fleet soon put an end to such 

 rumours. Very bad weather had been experienced, which 



1 State Papers, Dom., cclxxxviii. 4; cclxxxix. 75. He had "no more than two 

 blue and two white flags with six pendants to each of them ; there are wanting 

 two red flags and six pendants, one blue flag and one white." The office of Lord 

 High Admiral was in commission from the death of the Duke of Buckingham in 

 1628 until the appointment of the Earl of Northumberland in 1638. 



2 Gardiner, Hist., vii. 385. 



