A History Lesson

Here is a quick quiz that I would wager very few will pass with all correct answers. After you read this column you will know all the answers plus a few that might amaze you.

1. Who was famous for this quote? “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
2. During what battle was the quote spoken?
3. In what war was the battle fought?
4. What event precipitated the quote?
5. What were the “torpedoes” mentioned in the quote

My wife and I recently went on what was planned as a five-day trip to the Gulf Coast.  We had never been along the gulf coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

We checked the weather before we left, and it looked fairly promising for the entire trip. However, we had rain both the first and second days, and by the time we arrived in Mobile for our second night hotel stay, there was a threat of t-storms and possible tornado activity for the next two days.

Unfortunately, our five-day trip turned into a three-day abbreviated one. However, all was not lost, as there were two really interesting places we visited between raindrops, and frankly, once you’ve seen one gulf resort, you’ve seen them all.

I’m going to tell you about both sites, but I’ll do it in reverse order and over two columns.

One destination was Fort Morgan.  Located at the entrance to Mobile Bay, the fort was originally built of brick in 1834.  Most of the brick is still there, and I swear there must be at least a million of them, though a lot of the newer gun batteries were built of concrete instead.  You can explore the fort in under two hours on a self-guided tour, and it is really quite interesting.

However, the event regarding Fort Morgan that I want to tell you about happened on August 5, 1864 out in Mobile Bay near the end of our Civil War.  It is a little different than the version I always thought I knew. 

On the date above, the Union Naval forces were engaging Confederate forces at harbor entrance just off Fort Morgan.  The confederates had strung naval mines out into the bay, but in those days they weren’t called mines.  They were known as torpedoes—that is important to the tale. After all, there were no submarines or motorized underwater missiles called torpedoes back in our Civil War. They weren’t invented and used until almost 50 years later in World War I.

A Union Monitor ship, the U.S.S. Tecumseh was attacking a Confederate ironclad, the C.S.S. Tennessee just off the western edge of the fort.  It struck a torpedo and was sunk in less than two minutes with a loss of about 90 sailors and her captain, Tunis Craven.  The sudden loss of the ship threw the Union forces into confusion and shock, causing a momentary lull in the battle.

That was when the commanding officer of the fleet, Admiral David G. Farragut issued his famous command, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”  This battle cry turned the tide of battle and the Union forces defeated the Confederates and sailed into Mobile Bay.

The actual command wasn’t quite that brief, but it sounds better that way.  The real one was “Damn the torpedoes!” then, “Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!” It just doesn’t have that same ring to it when all those terms and names are added, does it?

Well, now you know the rest of the story and the answers to those five questions above.

If you are ever in the vicinity of Fort Morgan, it is well worth your time and money to visit it.  Afterwards you can, like we did, take the Fort Morgan Ferry from just outside the fort entrance across the mouth of Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island to continue your drive up to Mobile. Or, if you’re coming from the west you can take the ten-mile ferry trip in the other direction to get to Fort Morgan.