“ENGLAND EXPECTS-."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19617, 22 October 1925, Page 5

“ENGLAND EXPECTS-."

OBSERVING TRAFALGAR DAY. Cue hundred and twenty-five years ago yesterday, Lord Nelson’s famous appeal to the men of the British Navy broke from the mast of the Victory to herald a battle that was to prove one of the most glorious triumphs that Britain ever achieved at sea. Yesterday (ho great anniversary was fittingly observed in Dunedin, when a generous display of bunting was flown in all par to of the city. In the (Queen's Gardens the Navy League once again" hoisted the signal- --“England expects that every man will do Ids duty ’’ to the mast. There it fluttered all day long, complete save for the admiral's flag at tho masthead, and one of the code flags which has, unfortunately, been mislaid. It is interesting to realise that these flags, which are the property of the. Navy League, are not at all common, and the set in Dunedin is one of the few left in Now Zealand. The system of flag signals used nowadays is very different from that of Nelson's day, hut the signal flown in the Queen’s Gardens yesterday was correct save, for the two missing (lags. The system was last revived about 19.18 when vowels were included in the code. Prior to that time the fondness ci seamen for spelling out dubious and cntiiely unofficial messages to the world at large caused tho authorities to eliminate all vowels from tho code. The system had been previously revised on two occasions, so it may easily be understood that the ordinary flag signal a of to-day would be quite unintelligible to the immortal hero of Ireful-