438 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



being on his own coast, he was not bound to strike, and had 

 done so not out of duty, but from "brotherly love," and he 

 then re - hoisted his top - sails and flag. Heaton deliberated 

 whether or not he should fight the Dutchman for doing this, 

 but refrained. He, too, wrote to the Admiralty asking how 

 he should act in similar cases in future. 1 



The authorities at the Admiralty were always sparing in 

 advice on such matters. They showed the same reticence 

 as the Government in defining the extent of the British seas, 

 and for the same reason that they did not know themselves. 

 This reluctance was shown, and a partial glimpse afforded, 

 in a letter to General Montague (afterwards Earl of Sand- 

 wich) which Richard, Cromwell's son, wrote during his brief 

 tenure of the Protectorate. Telling him to demand "the 

 flag" of such foreign ships of war as he might encounter in 

 the British seas, he remarked that there had been "some 

 doubt " as to how far the British seas extend. Not unnaturally, 

 "Tumble -down Dick" shrank from plunging into a matter 

 which had puzzled the great Oliver and every one else. 

 "Not being willing," he said, "to determine that in our in- 

 structions, we rather put in general terms the 'British Seas' 

 only. We judge there is no question of all the sea on 

 this side the Shagenriffe ; 2 on the other side [the Baltic] you 

 have need be tender, and to avoid all disputes of this nature, 

 if it be possible, because war and peace depend on it." 3 



Disputes about the flag were not the only differences that 

 arose on the sea. At the end of September 1654 complaints 

 came from Yarmouth that the English fishermen were being 

 molested by the Dutch in the herring fishery there. They 

 had come, it was alleged, with a multitude of busses, " far 

 above a thousand sail," and, contrary to the custom before 

 the war, "and against the laws of this nation," shot their 

 nets so close to the sands that the English were crowded 



1 Heaton to the Admiralty Committee, 15th Aug. 1654. State Papers, Dom., 

 Ixxiv. 61, 62. 



2 The Skagerreef or Scaw, the north point of Jutland, Denmark. The ships 

 were going to the north in connection with the war between Denmark and Sweden. 



3 Richard Cromwell, the Protector, to General Montague, 18th March 1659. 

 Thurloe's Collections, vii. 633. 



