And his Majesty doth hereby command and enjoyn the Judge and Judges of the High Court of Admiralty for the time being, that at the several Sessions to be hereafter held by his Majesty's Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Admiralty, they give in charge, that strict enquiry be made of all offences in the premises, and that they cause all offenders therein to be duly punished. And all Vice Admirals and Judges of Vice Admiralties, are also to do the same, and to attend the due observation hereof, within the several Ports and Places of their respective Precincts.
Given at our Court at Whitehall the Eighteenth Day of September 1674, in the Six and Twentieth Year of our Reign.
A new competitor for the privilege now appeared in the yacht--a type of pleasure-boat introduced from the Netherlands at the Restoration. In 1676 the request of the Governor of Dover "to have the liberty of wearing his Maj^{ ts} Jack upon his private yacht" was refused by the king in Council[195], but the practice of hoisting the Union Jack upon yachts without warrant had become sufficiently widespread by 1686 to attract the notice of the navy authorities, as shown by the following memorandum of Pepys:
Notes about the Jack taken by S. P. at the Navy Board the 20th of Sept^r 1686 upon occasion of the liberty taken by Private Yachts to wear the Kings Jack without License.
Memorandum. That the temptations to this Liberty (besides the pride of it) are
1st. That in Holland they are freed by it from taking a Pilot.
2dly. As to France they are by the Jack excused from paying the Duty of 50 Sous by Tun paid by every Mercht Man coming into a French Port.
3dly. All our Merchant Men lower their Topsails below Gravesend to any ship or vessel carrying the King's Jack, be it but a Victualling Hoy[196].
About this time another form of jack had come into use in the Mediterranean. Its origin is obscure: we first meet with it in some notes of matters to be looked into jotted down by Pepys about 1687: "Quaere, the Practice of wearing Colours in Boats? And the Budgee[197] Jack now familiarly used abroad (as lately by St Loe[198]) being the Union Jack in a Canton upon a Red Flag." It will be seen from this note that it was of similar design to the red ensign instituted in 1707, and from the juxtaposition of "Colours in Boats" it may be inferred that it was a combination of the jack and red ensign for use in boats only. It was afterwards made the distinctive jack of a privateer[199].