BATH – The fifth warship to bear the name of the naval leader credited with the legendary battle cry “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” was christened with champagne Saturday at Bath Iron Works.

Following time-honored tradition, Sen. Susan Collins dedicated the Farragut to its

shipbuilders, to its sailors and

to the nation before smashing a bottle of champagne against the bow of the 510-foot Aegis destroyer under construction.

“In the spirit of your great namesake, may your voyages in freedom’s cause always be ‘full speed ahead,”‘ Collins, R-Maine, said as a crowd cheered, confetti streamed through the air and a band broke into the Navy anthem, “Anchors Aweigh.”

Collins, the ship’s sponsor, was joined by her 14-year-old niece, Emily Collins, the ship’s maid of honor, along with the other three members of the congressional delegation, Gov. John Baldacci, Navy officials, and other dignitaries.

Also looking on were sailors who will serve aboard the Farragut along with about 40 former sailors who served aboard the last USS Farragut, a guided-missile destroyer that served from 1960 until it was decommissioned in 1989.

About 20 peace activists carried signs and beat drums outside the ceremony as guests passed through the shipyard gates.

Acknowledging the war, Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, noted that 20 people with ties to Maine have died in Iraq and in the war on terrorism.

“It’s a debt we can never repay but one we can never forget,” she said, noting that one was a shipyard worker who served in the Maine National Guard.

The ship’s namesake, Adm. David Glasgow Farragut, was a career Navy officer whose father fought in the Revolutionary War. He remained loyal to the Stars and Stripes even though he was born in Tennessee and lived in Virginia at the time of secession.

During the Civil War, Farragut was credited with sailing his Union fleet into the Confederate ports of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Miss., and Mobile, Ala.

It was during the Battle of Mobile Bay that Farragut, directing the battle from his ship’s topmast, shouted his oft-repeated phrase.

With the Union ironclad Tecumseh destroyed by an underwater mine, known in those days as torpedoes, and the advance of his fleet faltering in the channels, Farragut exhorted the sailors to press onward into battle.

“Damn the torpedoes,” he shouted to his commanders. “Four-bells! Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouette, full speed!”

With that, his flagship Hartford moved ahead and passed over the torpedoes, which scraped its hull but did

not explode. Following a three-hour naval engagement, the last Confederate port on the Gulf Coast free of Union blockade fell to Union forces.

The Navy’s first admiral died in 1870 while visiting the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on the Maine-New Hampshire border.

Tom Randall from the USS Farragut (DLG6/DDG37) Association said that despite the famous “Damn the Torpedoes” quote, Farragut was not reckless.

“It wasn’t that he was so audacious and bold when he went into battle. It was that he prepared and took great pains to be ready for battle. That’s borne up for the new ship’s motto, ‘Prepared for Battle,”‘ Randall said before the ceremony.

“Damn the Torpedoes” is already the motto of the USS Mobile Bay, a Navy cruiser, so it could not be used by the crew of the Farragut.

The latest Farragut will be led by a Navy officer with little resemblance to the ship’s namesake.

Cmdr. Deidre McLay will be one of only six women to have led destroyers since the Navy loosened restrictions on assignments in 1994, according to a Navy spokesman.

The warship she will lead is among the most potent surface warships in the world.

The $1 billion Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with a crew of 300 sailors is built to withstand chemical attacks while advanced radar enables it to simultaneously wage battle with enemy airplanes, warships and submarines.