England expects that every man will do his duty

"England expects that every man will do his duty" was a signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS "Victory" as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October 1805. Trafalgar was the decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. It gave the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland control of the seas, removing all possibility of a French invasion and conquest of Britain. Although there was much confusion surrounding the wording of the signal in the aftermath of the battle, the significance of the victory and Nelson's death during the battle led to the phrase becoming embedded in the English psyche, and it has been regularly quoted, paraphrased and referenced up to the modern day. [cite web| url=http://www.ipa.org.au/files/57-4-secrethistoryoftheanglosphere.pdf#search=%22%22england%20expects%22%20english%20psyche%22 | title=The ‘secret’ history of the Anglosphere|author=Daniel Mandel|publisher=IPA Review|date=2005-12|accessdaymonth=17 September |accessyear=2006]

ignals during the battle

As the British fleet closed with the opposing combined fleets of France and Spain, Lord Nelson signalled all the necessary battle instructions to his ships. However, aware of the momentousness of events to come, Lord Nelson felt that something extra was required. He instructed his signal officer, Lieutenant John Pasco, to signal to the fleet, as quickly as possible, the message "England confides [i.e. is confident] that every man will do his duty." Pasco suggested to Nelson that "expects" be substituted for "confides", since the former word was in the signal book, whereas "confides" would have to be spelt out letter-by-letter. Nelson agreed to the change (even though 'expects' gave a less trusting impression than 'confides'):cite web|title=Nelson and His Navy — England or Nelson?|url= http://www.hms.org.uk/nelsonsnavyee.htm|publisher=Historical Maritime Society|accessdate= 2006-09-12]

The term England was widely used at the time to refer to the United Kingdom, though the British fleet included significant contingents from Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as England. Thus, at around 11:45 am on 21 October 1805, the most famous naval signal in British history was sent.cite web|url= http://www.aboutnelson.co.uk/england%20expcts.htm|title=England Expects|publisher=aboutnelson.co.uk| accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006] cite web|url= http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/traf-signals.html|title=Trafalgar signals|publisher=Broadside|accessdaymonth= 16 September |accessyear=2006] The exact time the signal was sent is not known (one account puts it as early as ten-thirty), [cite web|url= http://www.royal-navy.org/admin/content/view/180/145/|title=Battle of Trafalgar|author=Lieutenant Paul Harris Nicholas, Royal Marines, HMS Belleisle|date=1805-10-12|accessdaymonth=17 September |accessyear= 2006] as the message was repeated throughout the fleet and logs would have been written up after the battle, but Pasco puts it at "about a quarter to noon" and logs from other ships of the line also put it close to this time.

The signal was relayed using the numeric flag code known as the "Telegraphic Signals of Marine Vocabulary", devised in 1800 by Rear Admiral Sir Home Popham, and based on the signal books created earlier by Admiral Lord Howe.cite web|url= http://www.atlasgeo.net/fotw/flags/xf~psf.html|title=Popham's Signal flags|publisher= Flags of the World |date=2006-04-29|accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006] This code assigned the digits 0 to 9 to ten signal flags. These flags in combination represented code numbers which were assigned meanings by a code book,cite web|url= http://website.lineone.net/~d.bolton/Misc/signals.htm |title=Signals|date=2002-06-14|author=D.Bolton| accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006] distributed to all Royal Navy ships and weighted with lead for disposal overboard in case of capture. The code numbers are believed to have been hoisted on the mizzenmast, one after another, with the "telegraphic flag" also being flown to show that the signals employed Popham's code.cite book |last=Gordon |first=W.J. |title = Flags of the World. Past and Present: Their Story and Associations |year=1930 |publisher=Frederick Warne and Co.: London and New York|pages=147] The word "duty" was not in the codebook, and was not substituted as "confides" had been (the two closest words "best" and "utmost" were not deemed appropriate),cite web|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb%5Etraf.html|title= England Expects|publisher=Flags of the World|date=2005-12-31|accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear= 2006] so had to be spelt out, meaning the whole message required twelve "lifts".cite book |last=Barrie |first=Kent |title=Signal! A History of Signalling in the Royal Navy |year=1993 |publisher=Hyden House Ltd|pages=7,100] (The word "duty" was coded as shown as the numbers 1–25 stood for the letters A-Z, without J. Moreover, in the alphabet of that time V preceded U.) It is believed that it would have taken about four minutes. A team of four to six men, led by Lt. Pasco, would have prepared and hoisted the flags onboard Lord Nelson's flagship HMS "Victory". The message shows one of the shortcomings of Popham's code — even the two-letter "do" required three flags hoisted for the signal. It is reported that a great cheer went up as the signal was hoisted and repeated throughout the fleet.cite web|url= http://www.nmm.ac.uk/searchbin/searchs.pl?exhibit=it1390z&axis=1158450364&flash=true&dev= |title= Signal Flags|publisher=National Maritime Museum|accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006]

The message "engage the enemy more closely" was Nelson's final signal to the fleet, sent at 12.15 pm, before a single British cannon had been fired at the enemy. [cite book |last=Andidora |first=Ronald W. |title=Iron Admirals: Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century | year=2000 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location= |id=ISBN 0-313-31266-4 |pages=5 |url= http://print.google.com/print?id=0P-A8rIfO34C&lpg=4&pg=5&sig=0fYRDkvFjfv1U8VjSuIce3aPjRQ] This message was signalled using the telegraphic flag and flags 1 and 6. Nelson ordered this signal hauled up and kept aloft.cite web|url= http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk/battle-of-trafalgar.html|title=Battle of Trafalgar |publisher=Broadside| accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006] It remained up until shot away during the battle.

After the battle

Almost immediately, the signal began to be misquoted. A number of ships in the fleet recorded the signal as "England expects every man "to" do his duty," (omitting "that" and replacing "will" with "to"). This version became so prevalent that it is recorded around the base of Nelson's Column and on his tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral . However, the "Victory"s log and the accounts of signal officer John Pasco and Henry Blackwood (captain of the frigate "Euryalus"), both present at the preparation of the signal, agree on the form given here. In 1811, the tenor John Braham composed a song, "The Death of Nelson", including the words of the signal. The song became popular almost immediately and was performed throughout the British Empire during the 19th century. To make the words fit the metre, they were altered to "England expects that every man this day will do his duty". This version of the wording is also persistent.cite web|url=http://www.seabritain2005.com/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.351|title=An A to Z of Nelson:E - England Expects... Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson|publisher=SeaBritain 2005|year=2005|accessdaymonth=17 September |accessyear=2006]

Between 1885 and 1908 it was believed that the signal had been sent using the 1799 code book, as in 1885 it was pointed out that this had not been replaced until 1808. In 1908 it was discovered, the Admiralty had, in fact, changed the signal code in November 1803, after the 1799 version had been captured by the French, and new code books had been issued to Nelson's fleet at Cadiz in September, 1805. As a result, books published between these two dates show the signal using the wrong flags.

The signal is still hoisted on the "Victory" at her dry dock in Portsmouth on Trafalgar Day (21 October) every year,cite web|url=http://www.nmm.ac.uk/searchbin/searchs.pl?exhibit=it1338z&axis=1091607648&flash=true&dev= |title=England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty|publisher=National Maritime Museum|accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006] although the signal flags are displayed all at once, running from fore to aft, rather than hoisted from the mizzenmast.

imilar signals

Nelson's famous signal has been imitated in other navies of the world. Napoleon ordered the French translation, "La France compte que chacun fera son devoir", to be displayed on French vessels. At the opening of the Battle of Plattsburgh in September of 1814, Commodore Thomas MacDonough of the U.S. Navy flew the signal "Impressed seamen call on every man to do his duty", referring to the fact that impressment of U.S. mariners had been a popular cause of the War of 1812. Before the Battle of Tsushima, Japanese Admiral Togo (who had studied naval science in England from 1871 to 1878) signalled to his fleet: "The fate of the Empire depends upon today's battle: let every man do his utmost".cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/01/06/wjapan06.xml|title= Japan proudly flies battleflag again|date=2005-01-06|author=Colin Joyce|publisher=Telegraph.co.uk]

References in popular culture

The phrase has become well known in England because of Lord Nelson's enduring fame and the importance of the Battle of Trafalgar in British history. Generations of English schoolchildren have been taught about Trafalgar, alongside other seminal moments of English history such as the Battle of Hastings, Magna Carta, the Gunpowder Plot, and the Battle of Britain.

Charles Dickens quotes it in "Martin Chuzzlewit": :"...as the poet informs us, England expects Every man to do his duty, England is the most sanguine country on the face of the earth, and will find itself continually disappointed."

In Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark", the Bellman says: :"For England Expects — I forbear to proceed. Tis a maxim tremendous, but trite."

It was also referenced by Margaret Thatcher during her crucial speech to the cabinet which finally persuaded them to rally behind her over the divisive issue of the Poll Tax.cite book |last=Crick |first=M. |title = Michael Heseltine: A Biography |year=1997 |publisher=Penguin Books Ltd: London |pages=388] Further afield, it has been used by James Joyce in his novel, "Ulysses", which contains numerous repetitions of Nelson's message, including several that are deliberately fragmented or misquoted (even as "Ireland expects every man will do his duty"). In the United States, former Secretary of the Navy Gordon England wore a tie with the flags representing the famous quote when he visited naval vessels. [cite web|url=http://www.navy.mil/navydata/people/secnav/england/speeches/eng-wcnl.txt|title=Remarks by Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, At Western Connecticut Council Navy League, Stamford Yacht Club, Stamford, Conn.|date=2002-02-18|accessdaymonth=17 September |accessyear=2006] The phrase is said by a character on a raft in "Jaws 2" pretending that he is a British naval commander just before the shark attacks.

Today "England expects...", as an abbreviated version of the phrase, is often adapted for use in the media, especially in relation to the expectations for the victory of English sporting teams. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/4224130.stm |title=England expects...|date=2005-09-07|publisher=BBC|accessdaymonth=16 September |accessyear=2006] [cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4-1869020,00.html|title=Great Expectations|publisher=Times Online|author=Rick Broadbent|date=2005-11-12|accessdaymonth=17 September |accessyear=2006] Such is the sentence's connotation with sport that a recent book on the history of the England national football team by James Corbett was entitled "England Expects". A BBC Scotland television drama also bears its name. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/03_march/18/england_expects.shtml |title=England Expects |publisher=BBC |date=2004-03-18 |accessdaymonth=17 September |accessyear=2006]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/searchbin/searchs.pl?exhibit=it1338z&axis=1091607648&flash=true&dev= National Maritime Museum]
* [http://www.hms.org.uk/nelsonsnavyee.htm The Historical Maritime Society on misquotation]
* [http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/4746.html Royal Navy]