E - England Expects… Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson
At about 11.30 hrs in the morning of Monday 21 October, as the British fleet was sailing into action against the Combined Fleets of France and Spain at the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson ordered a special signal to be flown: 'England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty'. Although the most famous signal in naval history, it has often been misquoted.
The misquotation started immediately. A number of the British ships recorded the wording in their logs as 'England expects every man to do his duty' and this version has proved remarkably persistent – it even appears on the base of the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square. In 1811 the tenor John Braham composed a song, The Death of Nelson which was an instant ‘hit’ and was performed all over the British Empire throughout the 19th century. The signal formed part of the song’s refrain and to make the words fit the metre, Braham altered them to 'England expects that every man this day will do his duty'. Once again, this version has proved very persistent and still crops up today.
The signal was probably sent two words at a time, which means it would have taken at least six separate ‘hoists’. Scarcely surprising then that Collingwood became impatient, though when the words of the signal were reported to him, he 'expressed great delight and admiration and made it known to the officers and ship's company'.
Confusion even surrounds Nelson’s original wording for the signal. There is reliable evidence that he first thought of using the more trusting and more Nelsonian word 'confides' (i.e. 'has confidence'), but that his signal lieutenant John Pasco persuaded him to change it to the more mandatory ‘expects’ because that word was in the codebook, whereas 'confides' was not.
Other navies have used their own versions of the famous words. Napoleon was so impressed that he ordered a translation: 'La France compte que chaqun fera son devoir', to be displayed in all the ships of the Imperial Navy. The great Japanese admiral Count Heihachiro Togo signalled at the start of the Battle of Tsushima against the Russian fleet on 27 May 1904: 'The fate of the Empire depends upon today's battle: let every man do his utmost!' Nelson's signal is still flown by HMS Victory every Trafalgar Day.
Part of the Nelson A to Z, Edited extracts taken from The Nelson Encyclopædia by Dr Colin White, Chatham Publishing London, 2002.