The calculated decision behind 'Damn the torpedoes'

Tecumseh's instructions required her to engage CSS Tennessee while keeping east of the minefield. She crossed the field in pursuit of the ironclad and sank rapidly; her commander's death left his reason for choosing that route unresolved. Brooklyn then halted because her captain was uncertain how to preserve his ordered position beside the monitors after Tecumseh disappeared. Farragut judged that remaining under the fort's guns or attempting a withdrawal would endanger the whole column. He led Hartford around Brooklyn and across the minefield, relying on his ordnance experience to judge that many mines laid weeks earlier were waterlogged. Sailors later reported hearing firing mechanisms click without explosions as the ships passed. The decision still risked Hartford and her crew, even though the fleet got through.