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Damn the Torpedoes! Full Sped Ahead. (Don't Panic, Stick with Handsome Joe) [1]

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Date: 2024-06-30  

Contrary to the common understanding, “Damn the Torpedoes,Full Speed Ahead” is not a call for a mad, reckless charge. It is an invocation to avoid panic and stay true to one’s better judgement. The topedoes referred to are what we would now call mines, and in 1864, the confederate harbor of Mobile Alabama was heavily mined. Admiral Farragut believed that most of the mines had been deployed for months and would be waterlogged and ineffective. On the morning of the attack, two of his ships struck mines. His staff called for a retreat. He considered his reasoning sound; he continued the attack, lost one more ship and carried the day.

Joe had a bad day. An awful debate. There’s still a path forward. Don’t succomb to the professional bed wetters who call themselves pundits.

PS: Farragut was capable of doubt. Two years earlier, he had a plan to take New Orleans. Under cover of darkness, he ran his ships upstream past the guns guarding the city, to cut it off from the confederate forces. In the dark, his flagship ran aground on a sand bar, and a fire ship was sent adrift to take him out. He sat helpless on the sandbar. As the fireship drifted his way, he uttered the uncelebrated words, “My god, is it to end this way?” His men dropped a powder charge on the fire ship; it exploded and sank. A union steamboat pulled him off the sand bar. He took New Orleans.

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