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.
- Who was famous for this quote? “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
- During what battle was the quote spoken?
- In what war was the battle fought?
- What event precipitated the quote?
- 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.
