444 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd g. 15^0 49., Dec. 6. '56. 



the fleet something by way of a fillip; after musing 

 awhile, he said, ' Suppose we telegraph that Nelson ex- 

 pects every man to do his duty? ' The officer, whom he 

 was then addressing, suggested whether it would not be 

 better, ♦ England expects,' &c. Lord Nelson rapturously 

 exclaimed, ' Certainly, certainly; ' and at llh. 40m. a.m., 

 up went to the Victory's mizen top-gallant mast-head 

 the first flag of the celebrated telegraphic message, 



* England expects that every man will do his duty ; ' a 

 signal which, the instant its signification became fully 

 known, was greeted with three cheers on board of every 

 ship in the fleet, and excited among both officers and 

 men the most lively enthusiasm." 



The editor, however, pronounces the following 

 to be the " real facts," as given by Nelson's flag- 

 lieutenant on board the Victory (Captain Pasco), 

 who vouches for their accuracy to the editor : 



" His Lordship came to me on the poop, and after order- 

 ing certain signals to be made, about a quarter to noon he 

 said, ' Mr. Pasco, I wish to say to the fleet, • England con- 

 fides that every man will do his duty ; ' and he added, 

 ' You must be quick, for I have one more to make, which 

 is for close action.' I replied, * If your Lordship will 

 permit me to substitute the expects for confides, the signal 

 will soon be completed, because the word expects is in the 

 vocabulary, and the word confides must be spelt.' His 

 Lordship replied in haste, and with seeming satisfaction, 



• That will do, Pasco, make it directly.' When it had 

 been answered by a few ships in the van, he ordered me 

 to make the signal for close action, and to keep it up ; ac- 

 cordingly I hoisted No. 16. at the top -gallant mast-head, 

 and there it remained until shot away." 



The historic importance which has attached 

 itself to any incident connected with the events of 

 the memorable 21st, must be my apology for offer- 

 ing your readers the following brief extract from 

 the Journal of H. M. ship Leviathan, recording 

 an act of British heroism and devotion scarcely 



Earalleled in the annals of naval warfare. The 

 leviathan, after helping to disable the French 

 admiral's ship, and the four-decker Santissima 

 Trinidada, closed with the enemy's ship Augustin, 

 74, which she soon took : — 



"While this was doing, a shot took off" the arm of 

 Thomas Main, when at his gun on the forecastle; his 

 messmates kindly offered to assist him in going to the 

 surgeon, but he bluntly said, ' I thank you, stay where 

 you are ; you will do more good there : ' he went down by 

 himself to the cockpit. The surgeon (who respected him) 

 would willingly have attended him in preference to 

 p(;hers, whose wounds were less alarming; but Main 

 would not admit of it, saying, ' Avast, not until it comes 

 to my turn, if you please.' The surgeon soon after am- 

 putated the shattered part of the arm, near the shoulder, 

 during which with great composure, smiling, and with a 

 steady clear voice, he sang the whole of Rule Britannia ! " 



" Neptunia proles" — a true son of the Main ! 



Nelson's Warning. — Lord Nelson had a narrow 

 escape early in the action ; while yet 500 yards 

 distant from the Bucentaure, the Victory's mizen 

 top-mast was shot away. Her wheel had also 

 been struck, and shivered, which rendered it ne- 

 cessary for her to be steered in the gun-room. A 

 few oiinutes after, several marines were killed on 



the poop, and many others wounded, which occa- 

 sioned Nelson to order the officer in command to 

 disperse his men, to prevent unnecessary loss and 

 suffering. "Presently a shot, that had come 

 through a thickness of four hammocks, struck the 

 forebrace bits on the quarter-deck, and passed be- 

 tween Lord Nelson and Captain Hardy." It was 

 the avant-coureur of death, — the death that was 

 soon to plunge the family of England into one 

 common grief,— a grief, deep as it was universal ; 

 one of the greatest national bereavements seemed 

 already realised : " a splinter from the bits 

 bruising the left foot of the latter, and tearing 

 the buckle from his shoe." 



»• They both," says Dr. Beatty, "instantly stopped, and 

 were observed by the officers on deck to survey each other 

 with inquiring looks, each supposing the other to be 

 wounded. His Lordship then smiled, and said, ' This is 

 too warm work, Hardy, to last long ; ' and declared that, 

 through all the battles he had been in, he had never wit- 

 nessed more cool courage than was displayed by the 

 Victory's crew on this occasion." * * * « VVhile listen- 

 ing with characteristic avidity to the deafening crash 

 made by their shot in the French ship's hull, the British 

 crew were nearly suffocated with clouds of black smoke 

 that entered the Victory's port-holes ; and Lord Nelson, 

 Captain Hardy, and others, that were walking the quar- 

 ter-deck, had their clothes covered with the dust which 

 issued from the crumbled woodwork of the Bucentaure's 

 stern." 



Nelson's Death- Wound. — 



"Jlever allowing mere personal comfort to interfere 

 with what he considered to be the good of the service. 

 Lord Nelson, when the Victory was fitting to receive his 

 flag, ordered the large skylight over his' cabin to be re- 

 moved, and the space planked up, so as to afford him a 

 walk amidships, clear of the guns and ropes. Here, along 

 an extentof deck of about twenty-one feet in length, . . . 

 were the Admiral and Captain Hardy, during the whole 

 of the operations we have just detailed, taking their cus- 

 tomary promenade. At about Ih. '25m. p.m., just as the 

 two had arrived within one pace of the regular turning 

 spot at the cabin ladder-way. Lord Nelson, who, regard- 

 less of quarter-deck etiquette, was walking on the lar- 

 board side*, suddenly faced left about. Captain Hardy, 

 as soon as he had taken the other step, turned also, and 

 saw the Admiral in the act of falling. He was then on 

 his knees, with his left hand just touching the deck. The 

 arm giving way. Lord Nelson fell on his left side, exactly 

 upon the spot where his secretary, Mr. Scott, had breathed 

 his last, and with whose blood his Lordship's clothes 

 were soiled. The wound was by a musket-ball, which 

 had entered the left shoulder through the fore-part of the 

 epaulette, and descending had lodged in the spine." 



The fatal ball was received from the mizen-top of 

 the Redoubtable, the distance being about fifteen 

 yards ; this was apparent from the course which 

 the ball took, as well as from the fact that that 

 ship's maintop was hidden by the mainsail of the 

 Victory. 



* I have preferred giving this as being, according to 

 James, a more authentic account than that which appears 

 in Dr. Beatty's narrative. See foot-note. Dispatches and 

 Letters, vol. vii. p. 160. 



