CDR Tunis Craven, Hero of Mobile Bay
5 AUGUST 1864
CDR TUNIS CRAVEN, HERO OF MOBILE BAY
To a boy from Portsmouth, NH, the life of the sea seemed natural, thus, when Tunis Augustus MacDonough Craven was appointed a Midshipman on 2 February 1829, no one was surprised. He distinguished himself during the Mexican War as a Lieutenant under CDR Thomas O. Selfridge aboard DALE, 16, leading shore parties that routed Mexican troops and captured cannon at Muleje, Loreta, and Cochori in Baja and Sonora. The Civil War found Craven skippering TECUMSEH, a single-turret ironclad monitor, a class of warship well respected by both Civil War navies. She carried two 15″ Dahlgren smooth-bores, capable of hurling a 440-pound steel bolt that could rip enemy armor. Her iron hull befitted her advanced construction; she was designed to engage the best the enemy could produce. RADM David G. Farragut appreciated the value of monitors and placed four in the van of his attack on the Confederate port of Mobile, Alabama. These could resist shot from Forts Morgan and Gaines guarding the bay’s entrance channel, while simultaneously engaging the ironclad ram CSS TENNESSEE, a clear threat to Farragut’s wooden-hulled steam frigates.
In the mist this morning, TECUMSEH led the 18-ship Union squadron into Mobile Bay. At 0700, she opened with two rounds at Fort Morgan, after which she noticed TENNESSEE sliding toward the oncoming Union line. CDR Craven ordered the helm to port, bringing his monitor onto a ramming course for TENNESSEE. This carried the monitor inboard of the buoy marking a Confederate torpedo (mine) field. Closer and closer Craven glided, until just 100 yards from the Confederate, a tremendous explosion suddenly bashed TECUMSEH’s keel. Catastrophic flooding plunged her bows immediately, lifting her screw completely out of the water. Inside, panicked men scrambled for daylight.
Craven dove for the only escape, a small hatch behind the pilothouse. He and the pilot, John Collins, reached the ladder simultaneously, at which point Craven graciously stepped back, stating, “After you, pilot.” His civility allowed Collins to escape, but sealed Craven’s fate with that of 92 other crewmen, for in only 25 seconds TECUMSEH rolled completely.
Only 21 escaped. So terrifying was the spectacle of her demise that BROOKLYN, leading the main squadron, backed down in the channel fearing the same fate. With his line now breaking and exposed to fire from the shore, a frustrated Farragut yelled to CAPT Percival Drayton of the flagship HARTFORD, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” HARTFORD passed to port of BROOKLYN, leading the squadron through the rest of the mines that Farragut correctly gambled were waterlogged from lengthy immersion.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 11 AUG 25
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 7 “T-V”. GPO, Washington, DC, p. 78, 1981.
Fowler, William M., Jr. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. Avon Books, New York, NY, p. 240-41, 1990.
Hoehling, A.A. Damn the Torpedoes! Naval Incidents of the Civil War. John F. Blair Pub., Winston-Salem, NC, p. 113, 1989.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
As is usually the case with famous quotes, there is today some argument about the actual content of the exchange between Craven and Collins. According to A.A. Hoehling, Craven was already partway up the ladder when Collins grabbed his leg and said, “Let me get out first, captain, for God’s sake; I have five little children!”, to which Craven stepped back saying “Go on, sir.” Indeed, the monitors of those days were floating coffins in an emergency. The sole egress route was a one-at-a-time hatch near the pilothouse. (Miraculously, two or three additional sailors were able to squeeze through TECUMSEH’s tiny gun ports). As TECUMSEH rolled there was stone silence aboard the Confederate TENNESSEE. These sailors recognized they might very well suffer an identical fate, in fact, they were at that moment over the same torpedo field.
Some have commented that the Civil War was our last major conflict in which the opposing sides openly shared a measure of compassion for each other. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding ashore, observed TECUMSEH’s demise with the comment, “The event was the most startling and tragic loss of the day.”
