 Spar torpedoes were also used; an explosive device was mounted at the end of a spar up to long projecting forward underwater from the bow of the attacking vessel, which would then ram the opponent with the explosives.These were used by the Confederate submarine to sink although the weapon was apt to cause as much harm to its user as to its target.Rear Admiral David Farragut's famous/apocryphal command during the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"