who said damn the torpedoes

Admiral David Glasgow Farragut is the figure most commonly associated with the line “Damn the torpedoes! (Full speed ahead!).” The attribution originates from the Battle of Mobile Bay during the American Civil War, as various accounts describe Farragut exhorting his fleet to push forward despite the presence of torpedoes (mines) in the water. While several sources reference what he allegedly said and in what exact words, the precise, contemporaneous verbatim attribution has varied in early reports and later recollections, leading to some debate among historians about the exact wording and whether he used a trumpet to relay orders. Nevertheless, the phrase has become iconic in American naval lore and is widely linked to Farragut and Mobile Bay.