An important study of naval tactics and strategies: earliest issue of the first of several English editions, derived from the French original which had first appeared in 1765, and was significant in the development of English naval thought. It contains detailed descriptions of how to handle a fleet and of the system of numerary signals devised by Mahé de la Bourdonnais. Bourdé de Villehuet served in ships of the French East Indies company before joining the naval service. Later, in 1798, he was part of the naval force that occupied Corfu, Zante and Cephalonia.

An important study of naval tactics and strategies: earliest issue of the first of several English editions, derived from the French original which had first appeared in 1765, and was significant in the development of English naval thought. It contains detailed descriptions of how to handle a fleet and of the system of numerary signals devised by Mahé de la Bourdonnais. Bourdé de Villehuet served in ships of the French East Indies company before joining the naval service. Later, in 1798, he was part of the naval force that occupied Corfu, Zante and Cephalonia.

The work was endorsed by the Royal Academy of Science in Paris and deemed "well worthy of publication, both on account of the mathematical principles of manouevres which are therein explained with perspicuity and method, as well as the particular experiments and rules of practice with which it abounds; and we consider it as highly deserving the approbation of the Academy' [p. vi].

This is the first issue, identified by its dedication to Prince William Henry and a short errata; in a later issue the dedication is to the Duke of Clarence, the title Prince William Henry assumed later in 1788, and there is an additional leaf of errata. Copies of both issues are recorded at both the Bibliothèque Nationale and the National Maritime Museum. This edition is not held in any Australian library despite its precise relevance to things naval in the late 1780s.