I don’t think this is accurate, famously Nelson originally wanted the signal to read “England confides [is confident] that every man will do his duty”—a much more motivating message that says to all hands that Nelson (and the Nation) has every confidence in them.
His flag steward pointed out that they didn’t have a shorthand signal for “confides”, but did have one for “expects”; which would simplify the flag signal significantly. Rather than having the flag signal laboriously spell out every letter of C-O-N-F-I-D-E-S, Nelson instead ran up “Expects”.
I don’t think this is accurate, famously Nelson originally wanted the signal to read “England confides [is confident] that every man will do his duty”—a much more motivating message that says to all hands that Nelson (and the Nation) has every confidence in them.
His flag steward pointed out that they didn’t have a shorthand signal for “confides”, but did have one for “expects”; which would simplify the flag signal significantly. Rather than having the flag signal laboriously spell out every letter of C-O-N-F-I-D-E-S, Nelson instead ran up “Expects”.