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England Expects Every Man To Do His Duty

Nelson's signal at Trafalgar shows some of the shortcomings Howe's code. The first eight words were each signaled with a three flag hoist. Even the two letter word "do" needed a hoist of three flags. Nelson had wanted to send "confides", but the word was not in the code book so he settled for "expects" which was. The last word "duty" was also not in the code book, and the closest words that were, "best" and "utmost" were not considered appropriate. "Duty" therefore had to be spelt letter by letter which took seven flags. Because illustrations of the signal show all the flags at once it is sometimes thought that this was how the signal was sent. Actually of course it was sent in a succession of hoists over a period of four minutes.

To avoid the code being deciphered, in time of war the actual meaning of each flag in Howe's code would change periodically (every six months(?)). Hence, would one expect Popham's code to change with it. Thus to resend Nelson's signal six months later, it appears one would have needed different flags.)

It used to be thought that Nelson's signal had been sent using the 1803 code. In about 1912 Perrin, the Admiralty Librarian who wrote "British Flags", discovered that a 1799 code book had been captured by the French in August 1803, and that consequently the code had been changed before Trafalgar in October 1805. Illustrations of Nelson's signal before between 1885 and 1908 show the correct flags in the wrong arrangement.

David Prothero, 4 December 2001

One possible representation of the sequence of flags can be seen in this set of poles.

The 1799 code was changed by an Admiralty Circular of 4th November 1803. Nelson's Trafalgar signal was shown correctly until 1885. In that year it was pointed out that the Signal Book of 1799 was not replaced until 1808, and that the signal made at Trafalgar in 1805 must have used the 1799 code. The Admiralty were persuaded that this was correct and a coloured leaflet was issued illustrating the signal according to the numerary code in the 1799 Signal Book.

In 1908 Perrin found a book of the numerary code, corresponding to that in the 1808 Signal Book, that had been authorised and signed by three admirals, who were in office together in the Admiralty only between 21st January and 15th May, 1804. This convinced the Admiralty that the original sequence of flags was correct, and a circular was issued admitting that the leaflet of 1885 was wrong.

Remembering that the numerary code was only a part of the complete Signal Book, the sequence of events was:
1780, ca.: Howe's code, partly table-based, partly positional.
1788: An officer of the Navy published a numerical code system.
1790: New signal book by Howe, using a numerical code system. Signals: Must have changed, since they are no longer positional. Still included sail-signals. 260 entries. Numbers: may or may not have been equal to 1788. Was gradually expanded until:
1799. New Signal Book. Signals: Sail signaling was dropped. 340 entries. Numbers: Unchanged?
1800: Popham introduces his 'Telegraphic Signals of Marine Vocabulary'
1803: Popham's code officially adopted by British Royal Navy. 3000 entries.
1803.