damn the torpedoes

damn the torpedoes

To press on with a task or current course of action regardless of apparent risks or dangers. Attributed to David Farragut of the United States Navy during the American Civil War, usually paraphrased as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" The actual order (if it ever existed) was, "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!" I don't care that it might bankrupt the company! Damn the torpedoes and get it done already!
See also: damn, torpedo
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead

Proceed at once, no matter what. This cliché is a quotation of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut’s order during the Civil War, at the battle of Mobile Bay (August 5, 1864). It has been repeated ever since, under a variety of circumstances. Thus, the novelist Robert Ludlum used it in Apocalypse Watch (1995): “If this administration can root out the Nazi influence . . . It’s damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.” Similarly, Nevada Barr used it in Burn (2010): “Your definition of ‘careful’ is vaguely analogous to most people’s definition of ‘damn the torpedoes.’”
See also: ahead, damn, full, steam
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead
  • torpedo
  • warn about
  • warn about (someone or something)
  • play it safe
  • play safe
  • on the safe side
  • lull
  • lull (one) into (something)
  • lull into
References in periodicals archive
and damn the torpedoes!" as one of America's Civil War admirals once said.
Damn the torpedoes, if they need to, but they persist and persevere until decision-makers decide as they should.
If "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," is not official dictum, the recent actions of red-state teachers should remind us of how the New Deal first came about.
These children, filled with legitimate fear, angst and emotion, bursting with self-righteous fire like we all had when we were young, are on the march and determined to damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead.
His (likely paraphrased) order from the Civil War's Battle of Mobile Bay: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
"It seems like what we're advocating for here is damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead," said Robert G.
It's "Damn the torpedoes --and the public outcry--full speed ahead!"
His fans say they love him because he isn't politically correcthe speaks his mind, they say, and damn the torpedoes. Some point to his business successI'm really, really rich, Trump often boastsalthough great wealth seems generally more likely to alienate candidates from voters.
Epstein, "No One Can Afford to Say 'Damn the Torpedoes': Battle Tactics and U.S.
I have now seen the error of my ways, and any chance I have to add to my knowledge of Union and Confederate naval arms will be assumed in the spirit of a hearty "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"
Try these: Bruce Springsteen, Magic; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes Rating PROFESSOR GREEN: Growing Up in Public IT'S really no surprise that rappers like Professor Green and Example (who guests here) provide the natural progression for teenage girls keen to grow up following tweeny infatuations with One Direction and their ilk.
(e) "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" (Bonus for identifying the 'torpedoes')
All You Can Carry rides Petty's best riff since way back when, while Forgotten Man recalls those Damn The Torpedoes days.
While both sides had to use ingenuity to develop fast, efficient, steam-powered, armored vessels with increasingly rapid firing and accurate guns (of which the USS Monitor was something of a prototype), the Confederates also broke new ground with experiments in submarines and mines (the torpedoes of "Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead").
In true "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" fashion, the unidentified female voice repeated the already discredited story that Virtuoso and Zona were responsible for protecting former Democratic Election Commissioner Nancy Smith's benefits' package by arranging for her to stay on as a deputy commissioner, despite newly appointed commissioner, Lora Allen, saying it was her decision to keep Smith onboard.