Weighing the risk of remaining where they were under fire of Fort Morgan or proceeding and taking chances with the Confederate torpedoes (Mines), Farragut too the lead, supposedly uttered his famous quote, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead.' The USS Hartford surged ahead and the other ships in his line followed.
At the rear of the column, Commander J.R.M. Mullany's USS Oneida was the ship on the Fort Morgan side of the USS Galena. As it was now the closest ship, the fort turned its fire on it. It suffered severe damage to its steering gear and several fires broke out below decks.
The two ships were almost out of range of the fort, when a 7-inch rifle shell passed through the chain armor on the ship's side and exploded in the starboard boiler at the water line. Nearly all of the below decks were scalded to death by escaping steam.
Within an hour the Oneida had lost the use of at least two of its guns and a shot from the CSS Tennessee knocked out a third and severely wounded Mullany.
Fortunately at this stage of the battle, Farragut's ironclads had driven the Tennessee back and saved both the Oneida and Galena from further mauling.
Commander Clark Wells of the Galena used his powerful 800-hp engine to move the much heavier Oneida to deeper and safer waters.
--Old B-Runner
No comments:
Post a Comment