hem and dragging the hulks down
with her. The chains stood the strain for an instant, then snapped, and
the Itasca, having wrought a practicable breach, sped down to the fleet.

While these various accessory operations were going on, Admiral
Farragut's mind was occupied with the important question of carrying out
the object of his mission. The expedient of reducing or silencing the
fire of the enemy's forts, in which he himself had never felt
confidence, was in process of being tried; and the time thus employed
was being utilized by clearing the river highway and preparing the ships
to cut their way through without delay, in case that course should be
adopted. Much had been done while at the Head of the Passes, waiting for
the Pensacola to cross the bar; but the work was carried on
unremittingly to the last moment. The loftier and lighter spars of all
the vessels had already been sent ashore, together with all unnecessary
encumbrances, several of the gunboats having even unstepped their lower
masts; and the various ordinary precautions, known to seamen under the
name of "clearing ship for action," had been taken with reference to
fighting on anchoring ground. These were particularized in a general
order issued by the admiral, and to them he added special instructions,
rendered necessary by the force of the current and its constancy in the
same direction. "Mount one or two guns on the poop and top-gallant
forecastle," he said; "in other words, be prepared to use as many guns
as possible ahead and astern to protect yourself against the enemy's
gunboats and batteries, bearing in mind that you will always have to
ride head to the current, and can only avail yourself of the sheer of
the helm to point a broadside gun more than three points (thirty-four
degrees) forward of the beam.... Trim your vessel also a few inches by
the head, so that if she touches the bottom she will not swing head down
the river," which, if the stern caught the bottom, would infallibly
happen, entailing the difficult manoeuvre and the perilous delay of
turning round under the enemy's fire in a narrow river and in the dark.
The vessels generally had secured their spare iron cables up and down
their sides in the line of the boilers and engines; and these vital
parts were further protected by piling around them hammocks, bags of
sand or ashes, and other obstructions to shot. The outsides of the hulls
were daubed over with Mississippi mud, to be less easil