J.S.N..MaóAdmiral David G. Farragut was one of the American Civil War´s great heroes, - capturing New Orleans and gaining control of the river Mississipi, thus splitting the Confederate territory.
A monument to David Farragut stands today in the Plaça de David Farragut in Ciutadella, looking out over the channel that separates Menorca from Mallorca.
On June 10th the United States Navy will commission its newest guided missile destroyer, the 9,200 ton USS Farragut, DDG99, at the naval station in Maryport. The ship is 509 feet long, with a beam of 59 feet. Powered by four gas turbine engines she can reach a speed of 30 knots. The ship´s skipper will be a woman, Commander Deirdre McLay, one of only a few women to command a nuclear-armed warship.
Farragut´s father, Jorge Farragut Mesquida, a merchant captain, came from Menorca to America in 1776, according to Carol Lopez Bradshaw of the Menorcan Cultural Society. A man steeped in the ways of the sea and the military, he served with great gallantry in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 as a cavalry officer.
His son, David, was born in 1801 in Tennessee and went to sea at the age of eight, commanding his first small ship at twelve! When the Civil War began, Farragut chose to defend the Union and took command of eighteen vesels, a fleet of mortar boats and seven hundred men.
His fleet ran under the guns of two forts to capture New Orleans, a feat that distinguished him as a hero.
Two years later Farragut´s fleet returned and took Mobile Bay. He returned to New York and died in 1870 at the age of 69.
In 1777 large numbers of Menorcans went to St Augustine, and New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Their descendants, seven thousand in all, are still found in this part of Florida,
A portrait of Admiral Farragut, painted by a local St. Augustine artist, will hang in the ship´s wardroom.
