GEORGE DEWEY 151 the coming attack on New Orleans kept the men busy from early morning to late evening and Dewey tells how the captain of the ship put a stop to the swearing which became rife when some especially hard task was to be done. ^ ^ One day the cap- tain appeared on deck from his cabin, where he had been over- hearing the flow of sailor langaage. He looked as if he had borne about all he could bear. He told me to have the crew lay aft. I ordered them aft ; then he said, ^ Hereaf ter, any offi- cer caught swearing will be put under suspension, and any man caught swearing will be put in double irons.' Having delivered this ultimatum he returned to his cabin. There was an end of swearing on the Mississippi from that minute. ' ' To get to New Orleans the heterogeneous fleet which Far- ragut had gotten together had to pass Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson above which was an obstruction of chain-booms and anchored hulks across the river. The chains of the ob- struction were finally broken and about midnight of the 23rd of April the order was given for the fleet to move up the river. The Mississippi was second in the first division and Captain Smith gave Dewey the post of handling the ship, which was a big responsibility for a man of twenty-four. The Confederate ram Manassas caused the greatest excitement to the Missis- sippi during the passing of the forts. Its first attempt to ram the Mississippi was almost successful. Dewey, however, had seen it in time to partly turn his ship and the Manassas was able to strike only a glancing blow. This tore a piece of timber about seven feet long, four feet broad and four inches deep from the side of the Mississippi but due to the solid con- struction of the vessel it was practically undamaged. Later in the night Dewey had a chance to run down the Manassas but her captain ran her ashore. It was then easy to turn the guns of the Mississippi on the ram, wreck her, and send a boat to set her on fire. The Mississippi then proceeded up the river to join the fleet which had anchored about fifteen miles below New Orleans. The next morning the fleet was off for New Orleans, meeting only the slight opposition of the two bat- teries Chalmette and McGehee. The taking of New Orleans
