Admiral Villeneuve was in command of the French and the Spanish fleets during the Napoleonic wars.

October 1805 and his flag ship, Bucentaure, docked in Cádiz and the crew were granted shore leave.

Word got to the ship that the British fleet were approaching and he had to set sail at the rush.

He consulted his First Lieutenant to establish the best way to call his men back to the ship who suggested raising flags to communicate the message.

Villeneuve didn’t want to warn the British that he was aware of their presence so he decided to code the message but make it meaningful.

So, it was decided to send the message …….

To the water, it is the Hour.

Of course, it was in French….

A l’eau cest l’heur

As assumed, the British were all eyes and spotted the message.

Admiral Nelson asked his yeoman to read the message. Through a telescope, Yeo read the flags and hesitated.

“Come on, spit it out” shouted Nelson.

Yeo replied. “Sir, it reads –

‘ello Sailor