The advantage of this, if heading towards the enemy, was that by tacking again together they would be at once again in column, or line ahead, the customary order of battle.
The Dutch fleet was seen some miles to seaward and more to the south, sailing in three divisions in line ahead.
They argued that the fleet must enter Plymouth Sound in line ahead at the risk of being destroyed in detail, as the shoals at the entrance (those on which the breakwater of to-day stands) left only two narrow channels.
Monk's fleet sailing in line ahead, the only order in which it could traverse the narrow channels, would cover about nine miles from van to rear.
As they went out they jettisoned their woodwork and formed a line ahead, in which formation they were to fight.
They were coming on at a speed which seemed to be about 17 knots, and were formed in line ahead, in a line perfectly maintained, so that, as they were approaching on almost exactly the opposite course, their number could not be counted.
Realising the danger of pressing too closely in the course of a retiring fleet, the Germans again altered course to line ahead, and steered to cut the British ships off from their line of retreat up the Forth.
At six miles distance several squadrons of destroyers were made out, also formed in line ahead, and steaming alongside the German line, abaft either beam.
The Warner was put in advance, the gunboats following in line ahead.
When we were about two miles out the Admiral signalled from his flagship: “Form divisions in line ahead.
That evening found us off Beachy Head, and having finished tactics we headed for Portland, proceeding in divisions in line ahead, columns disposed abeam to starboard.
The movements described by Captain Cubitt are not conceivable unless we suppose that the English fleet was in line ahead.
It could not have been executed except by ships in a line ahead, and we have therefore sufficient reason to believe that this formation was adopted by our fleets in the first Dutch war.
This implies that none of them were to be so placed as to get between a comrade and the Dutch; in other words, they were to be in "line ahead," i.
These were soon given, and were to the effect that the launches of the flagship and of the Almirante Cochrane were to be the leading boats in a formation of double column of line ahead, in which order they were to attack.
His own view of the proper form of attack from windward is to bear down upon the van or weathermost ships of the enemy in line ahead on a course oblique to the enemy's line.
On the 19th and 20th Tromp executed a masterly retreat, with his fleet in a crescent or obtuse-angle formation and his convoy in its arms, but nowhere is there any hint that either side fought in line ahead.
The four orders here given are supplementary to them, providing for the formation of line abreast, and for forming from that order a line ahead to port or starboard.
The Cæsar and the rest of them are in a line ahead, further north, heading up well to windward even of our own wake.
It is odd, that Bluewater should come down nearly before the wind, in a line ahead, and not in a line abreast!
At the signal from the admiral the column swung "left into line" and bore down in line abreast upon the Athenians who were ranging along the shore in line ahead.
Although details about the great battles of the First Dutch War are scanty, there is enough recorded to show that both sides used the line ahead as the normal battle line.
He advanced rapidly in line ahead formation, closed in near the enemy's prows as if he intended to strike at any moment and circled round the line.
The ships were now steaming in double column, line ahead, and, having left Smith's Knoll well on the starboard hand, were running on a southerly course to clear Winterton Ridge.
Several British light cruisers were steaming in line ahead when a severely mauled German ocean-going torpedo-boat was observed approaching.
As they pass, in line ahead, a wild tumult of enthusiasm breaks out among the troops.
Silently, closely in line ahead, four grey destroyers break the mist, fleet swiftly across the arc of vision ahead, and disappear.
The gunboats led the movement, necessarily in line ahead, owing to the narrowness of the bayou.
His fleet, organized in three divisions of eight, three, and six vessels respectively, was formed in line ahead.
Nelson took his ships into action in column of line ahead, in other words, in single file, the head of the column aiming for the centre of the enemy's battle line.
They were steaming in an oval course of about two miles long in line ahead, delivering their bow, stern and broadside fire as they circled.
The Russian fleet, which had thus far been coming on in line ahead, now hurriedly formed line abreast, the two battleships opening fire upon our cruisers with their 12-inch guns.
Eight ships in "Line Ahead," the Squadron glided easily up the flow toward the gate.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "line ahead" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
