ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY 21OCT 1805 (2 Viewers)

[The Katzie Kid]

 

[Ian Scout]

In retrospect Nelson made an unfortunate choice of words as at least 50% of the sailors were Scottish recruited from the Hebridean Islands.

Ian.

 

[Barkmann]

In retrospect Nelson made an unfortunate choice of words as at least 50% of the sailors were Scottish recruited from the Hebridean Islands.

Ian.

27 ships of the line [5 had scottish captains], plus a large number of smaller ships, 18,000 sailors and Royal Marines, of which around 1,300 were Scottish, there were twice as many people there from the island of Ireland, around 4,000.

Think you have been drinking too much of the local brew. Rear Admiral Nick Harris, the Flag Officer, Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland in 2005 claimed 30% were Scottish and had to later retract his figures, as way too high.

Scotland's total population at the time was 1.7 million [first census in 1801] and the Hebridean Islands were around 64000 to 65000, which by your calculations means 14%-15% of the people at the battle were from the Hebridean Islands......If you believe that i have some magic beans to sell you.

If you look at the research, the signal needed to go up urgently and England was a pre-arranged word available in the Royal Navy's 1803 signal vocabulary code book, requiring only one hoist of flags (three flags total with the telegraphic flag). Great Britain was not a single code-word in the signal book and was also not in common parlance at the time, which would have meant spelling Great Britain out one letter at a time. The signal was changed, Nelson originally wanted to communicate.

'England Confides That Every Man Will Do His Duty'

He wanted the signal to go up very quickly and was advised by Lieutenant John Pasco, his signals officer, to change the word 'confide' for the word 'expect', as that would be quicker. Because expects was in the signals vocabulary, and confides must be spelt in flag form letter by letter.

Did 17 years in the Royal Navy, been out nearly 20 years. What would have been a 'Lobster' then, but 'Bootneck' now. i sat through many lectures on Nelson and Trafalger, i also attending flag signal course [i was 'volunteered' to go by an officer], just in case we needed it again, if morse code signalling was not available.

 

[Barkmann]

The 30% of Scottish at the battle was disproved in the early 2010s when ships crew data was compared to the census data from the same period. The Scottish and the Irish did have a higher percentage of men fighting at Trafalgar, when compared to the English. There was also over 300 Americans in the RN at the battle, volunteers and pressed men, including many on the Victory and George Almy [from Rhode Island], who was the Ship's Master on HMS Pickle, the ship that carried the news of the defeat of the French and the death of Nelson.

Try here for further research, as google will just bring up the info [which is out of date] that has the most hits, from AI Historian.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/aboutapps/trafalgarancestors/