"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"
Thursday, August 13, 2020
It was late in the American Civil War--August of 1864, just eight months before the war's end. Mobile, Alabama, was the last important port remaining in Confederate hands along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Mobile Bay was protected by a small Confederate (Southern) fleet and three forts guarding the bay's entrance, and Union (Northern) blockades were regularly thwarted by Confederate ships.
The Northern fleet was equipped with 12 wooden ships, two gunboats, and four ironclad monitors (the latest in naval technology). The South had only three gunboats and one ironclad.
The Southern military had placed across the mouth of the bay--which was also protected by a long peninsula and a string of islands--67 naval mines known as "torpedoes" (unlike the underwater missiles that bear that name today).
The minefield was well marked by buoys, and the Northern admiral, David G. Farragut, was well aware of its presence. Its purpose was not to sink Union ships, but to force them to use the narrow passage past one of the forts, bringing them within range of the fort's guns.
In the heat of the battle, one of Farragut's ships slowed when it reached this minefield. It is reported that Farragut issued an order: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
Historians doubt that this happened. After all, a shouted order could not have been heard above the din of the gunfire. Likewise, the incident was not reported until a few years later, and it is worded in several different ways. One source speculates that Farragut gave two different orders, to two different officers, so what he "really" said was supposedly, "Damn the torpedoes. Four bells, Captain Drayton," and then, "Go ahead, Jouett, full speed."
Factual or not, such stories often capture the character of the alleged speaker, as with, say, the legend of George Washington telling the truth when confronted with chopping down his father's cherry tree. Farragut's bold leadership style led to the taking of Mobile Bay with the loss of only one Union ironclad, whereas only one of the four Confederate ships escaped unscathed.