CHAPTER VIII.

THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC.

WHILE the great naval expedition was approaching New Orleans, the waters of Hampton Roads, from which it had sailed, were the scene of a battle that revolutionized the naval armaments of the world. When at the outbreak of the war the navy-yard at Norfolk, Va., was abandoned, with an attempt at its destruction, the steam-frigate "Merrimac " was set on fire at the wharf. Her upper works were burned, and her hull sank. There had been long hesitation about removing any of the valuable property from this navy-yard, because the action of Virginia was uncertain, and it was hoped that a mark of confidence in her people would tend to keep her in the Union. The day that Sumter was fired upon, peremptory orders had been issued for the removal of the "Merrimac " to Philadelphia, and steam was raised and every preparation made for her sailing. But the officer in command, for some unexplained reason, would not permit her to move, and two days later she was burned. Within two months the Confederates were at work upon her. They raised the hull, repaired the machinery, and covered it with a steep roof of wrought iron five inches thick, with a lining

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of oak seven inches thick. The sides were also plated with iron, and the bow was armed with an iron ram, something like a huge ploughshare. In the water she had the appearance of a house submerged to the eaves, with an immense gun looking out at each of ten dormer windows.

But all this could not be done in a day, especially where skilled workmen were scarce, and it was March, 1862, before she was ready for action. The command was given to Franklin Buchanan, who had resigned a commission in the United States navy. On the 8th of March, accompanied by two gunboats, she went out to raise the blockade of James and Elizabeth rivers by destroying the wooden war-vessels in Hampton Roads. Her first victim was the frigate "Cumberland," which gave her a broadside that would have riddled a wooden vessel through and through. Some of the shot entered her open ports, killed or wounded nineteen men, and broke two of her guns; but all that struck the armor bounded off like peas. Rifled shot from the "Merrimac" raked the "Cumberland," and then she ran into her so that her iron prow cut a great gash in the side. The "Cumberland" at once began to settle; but the crew stood by their guns, firing broadside after broadside without producing any impression on the iron monster, and receiving in return shells and solid shot that made sickening havoc. The commander, Lieutenant Morris, refused to surrender; and at the end of forty-five minutes, when the water was at the gun-deck, the crew leaped

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SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND.

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overboard and with the help of the boats got ashore, while the frigate heeled over and sank to the bottom. Her topmasts projected above the surface, and her flag was flying.

While this was

going on, three Confederate steamers came down and attacked the "Congress" with such effect that her commander tried to run her ashore. Having finished the "Cumberland," the "Merrimac " came up and opened a deliberate attack on the

Congress," and finally set her on fire, when the crew escaped in their boats. She burned for several hours, and in the night blew up. Of the

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other National vessels in the Roads, one got aground in water too shallow for the "Merrimac " to approach her, and the others were not drawn into the fight.

The next morning the "Merrimac " came down from Norfolk again, to finish up the fleet, but found that a new antagonist had just arrived. When they first saw it, her men called it "a cheese box on a raft." The idea of a revolving tower or turret for heavy guns was at least half a century old, and had been set forth by several inventors. But it was never put into practical use till the National Government contracted with John Ericsson to build an iron-clad with such a turret and a deck rising hardly more than a foot above the water. She was built in about a hundred days, at Brooklyn, N.Y., was named "Monitor," and was placed under the command of Captain John L. Worden. He hurried her down to Hampton Roads, in a stormy and dangerous passage, and on the very morning after his arrival met and fought the "Merrimac." Buchanan had been wounded in the action of the previous day, and Lieutenant Jones now commanded the Confederate iron-clad. The "Monitor" placed herself between the wooden ships and their enemy, and a fight of four hours ensued. The shot of the "Merrimac" glanced off as harmlessly from the " Monitor's" turret and decks as the "Cumberland's" broadsides had from hers. One shell, however, struck the little square pilot-house at an instant when Captain Worden had his eyes at the sight-hole. The explosion tem

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DESTRUCTION OF BOTH IRON-CLADS.

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porarily blinded him, and the command fell upon Lieutenant Greene. It was not known how much damage, if any, the great guns, fired sometimes when the vessels almost touched each other, had inflicted upon the "Merrimac "; but she withdrew that afternoon to Norfolk, and did not come down to fight again. It was said that before she met the "Monitor" she was crippled, having broken off • her prow when she rammed the "Cumberland," and that but for this she might have proved a more formidable antagonist to the novel little craft, and perhaps could have sunk her; though the "Monitor" had the advantage of drawing less water, and in some parts of the Roads could steam quite around the "Merrimac."

In May, when Norfolk was captured, an attempt was made to take the "Merrimac" up the James River; but she got aground, and was finally abandoned and blown up. When the Confederates refitted her they re-christened her "Virginia," but the original name sticks to her in history. In December of that year the "Monitor" attempted to go to Beaufort, N. C., towed by a steamer; but she foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras and went to the bottom, carrying with her a dozen of the crew.