'His lordship came to me on the poop, and after ordering certain signals to be made, about a quarter to noon he said: "Mr. Pasco, I wish to say to the fleet, 'England confides 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 'expects,' for confides! the signal will soon be completed, because the word 'expects' is in the vocabulary, whereas the word 'confides' must be spelled?" His lordship replied in haste, and with scenting satisfaction: "That will do, Pasco; make it directly!"
Nelson was quite a piece of work. From his Pearl Harbor style sneak attack on the Danish, to his illicit sex romp, to disobeying a direct order signaled to him by placing a telescope against his blind eye and claiming he didn’t see it.
Well. At least he was a buggerer. That we know of.
The movie, Battle of Trafalgar:
Wasn’t his corpse tucked in a pickle barrel for the ride home? So it would keep? Something like that. . . .