Talk:Battle of Mobile Bay

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Damn the torpedoes[edit]

What is the justification for the use of the words apocryphal and allegedly regarding the "Damn the torpedoes" quote? As far as I can tell from my brief research, most sources indicate that those were his orders. 198.112.236.6 17:22, 2 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

He said "Go on, Drayton. Damn the torpedoes, go on!" This was later changed to the near-legendary "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!" Carajou 02:50, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The most thorough and comprehensive study of the battle concluded that Farragut never uttered the famous words or their equivalent; they first appeared in an account some ten years after the battle, and thereafter appeared in various forms. See Friend, Jack, West Wind, Flood Tide : the Battle of Mobile Bay (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press 2004), ISBN 978-1591142928. 4.249.96.86 (talk) 14:22, 19 April 2008 (UTC)\[reply]

The article should point out explicitly that no naval officer ever uttered the nonsense "full speed ahead". All speed is in one direction; you're never proceeding ahead at three knots while making backward weigh at two. The expression (whether Farragut said it at Mobile or not) is "full steam ahead", meaning "apply all available pressure to the pistons, leaving none in reserve, while the engine is engaged for forward thrust, causing the ship to advance at maximum speed." It's not a minor point; the popular conflation of "Ahead, (at) full speed" (which is also properly said "full steam") and "Full speed ahead" obscures both history and science. Laodah 18:32, 19 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Pic change[edit]

The previous pic, a Currier and Ives lithograph, showed the battle between CSS Tennessee and five monitors. There were four monitors total in this operation, and one of them, USS Tecumseh, was sunk by a torpedo before all of the vessels involved exchanged fire. Carajou 02:50, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Battle of Atlanta and Mobile was a GREAT 1-2 punch, and I think this article was well written.shyjayb 22:09, 31 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shyjayb (talk • contribs)

External links modified[edit]

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Lashing to mast[edit]

Edited the section about the story of Farragut being lashed to the mast to take out some editorial commentary suggesting that people would tend to interpret that as him vowing to go down with the ship when actually he was tied there because he was up to view the battle and otherwise could have fallen and died.

Maybe if there was some cite to someone having the mistaken view? I personally don't find the idea of a commanding Admiral being tied to the mast to command a battle where they famously ran dangerous minefields to be in any way "prosaic" as the comment said. Took out commentary either way about the level of romance of the motivation. 63.209.178.11 (talk) 01:32, 3 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]