(James) Farragut Birthday
5 JULY 1801
DAVID (JAMES) GLASGOW FARRAGUT BIRTHDAY
Jordi Farragut Mesquida was a Minorcan-born sea captain sailing Spanish merchant ships between Vera Cruz, New Orleans, and Havana in the 1770s. With the outbreak of our Revolutionary War, Mesquida anglicized his name to “George Farragut” and came to our newly declared nation to fight against King George III. Serving with the South Carolina State Navy, he was wounded and captured during the British siege of Charleston. A prisoner exchange allowed him to fight again at the battle of Cowpens. He finished the war as a MAJ in a light horse company of the North Carolina State Regiment. With the peace, George married his North Carolina sweetheart, Elizabeth Shine, and the couple moved west to Tennessee. Their first of five children, James Glasgow Farragut, was born this day.
With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Spanish-speaking George was selected for an administrative position in New Orleans. Son James had his first nautical adventure on the 1700-mile flatboat trip down the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. In 1808, during a yellow fever outbreak, family friend LT David Porter, Jr., USN, brought his ailing father (and Revolutionary veteran), David Porter, Sr., to the Farragut home. The elder Porter had Consumption (tuberculosis), complicated acutely with sunstroke. Despite Elizabeth’s ministrations, the elder Porter died on 22 June. Indeed, Elizabeth died that same day of yellow fever. A distraught George Farragut consigned the care of his children to friends–James to LT Porter. When James reached 9 years of age, Porter arranged an appointment as a midshipman, taking him under his wing and into combat in the War of 1812 aboard ESSEX, 32. James changed his Christian name to David to honor his adopted father and steadily rose through the officer ranks.
A southerner by birth, David Glasgow Farragut nevertheless distinguished himself as a Union Navy commander during the Civil War. To be sure, on 16 July 1862, Farragut was the first officer appointed a Rear Admiral with Congress’ creation of that rank. Later, on 5 August 1864, from his flagship USS HARTFORD, RADM Farragut entered the Confederate held waters of Mobile Bay. When the guns of the Confederate forts opened, the lead ship backed down in the channel, threatening to ruin the operation. In his typical fiery style, Farragut ordered HARTFORD to pass around BROOKLYN–through a known mine field (mines in these days were called “torpedoes.”) With the order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Farragut gambled that months of submersion had waterlogged the devices. HARTFORD’s crew could hear the primers of the torpedoes snapping, but Farragut’s daring paid off, and the squadron went on to rout the Confederates.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 11 JUL 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Cogar, William B. Dictionary of Admirals of the U.S. Navy, Vol 1 1862-1900. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 60-61.
Hoehling, A.A. Damn the Torpedoes! Naval Incidents of the Civil War. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Pub., 1989, pp. 105-20.
Lewis, J.D. “American Revolution in North Carolina.” AT: https://www.carolina.com/NC/Revolution/nc_patriot_military_major_s.html, retrieved 16 June 2023.
Lyons, Renee Critcher. Foreign-Born American Patriots: Sixteen Volunteer Leaders in the Revolutionary War. New York, NY: McFarland & Company, 2013, p. 91.
Potter, E.B. Sea Power: A Naval History, 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981, pp. 104, 147-48.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2nd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 31-32, 74.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: History records little about David Porter, Sr.’s Revolutionary War naval service. His son, David Porter, Jr., and David, Jr.’s son, David Dixon Porter, are remembered with our warships PORTER (TB-6, DD-59, DD-356, DD-800, DDG-78). David Glasgow Farragut has become an icon of our service’s heritage and is remembered with FARRAGUT (TB-11, DD-300, DD-348, DDG-37 (DLG-6), DDG-99).
Historians have since debated the actual words used by Farragut to command HARTFORD forward at Mobile Bay–but his intent is accurately portrayed with the quote above.
The use of “torpedo” for an underwater mine derives from the name of a fish. The torpedo ray is native to the shallow waters of our Atlantic shores. Like the electric eel, the torpedo ray can generate an electric shock and does so when stepped upon by waders.
