THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 287, 12 May 1898, Page 3

THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC.

o AN HISTORICAL FIGHT. The following short account of the action between the pioneers of armoured ships which took place during the American Civil War, will be redd with interest at the present time. The Merrimac, a monster, clothed in iron and breathing forth death and destruction, had glided, about noon, on the Bth day of March, 1562, into the Hampton Roads, and attacked the Union fleet. The United States sloop of war, the Cumberland, had been sent to the bottom, her colours flying, and her brave men saluting the enemy with a discharge of lead and iron, even as the waves laved the hot lips of their cannon. Ihe commander of the Cong'ess had been fotced to abandon his burning ship and had witnessed its total destruction. The Minnesota was aground and at the mercy of this terrible leviathan of the deep. Cannon bulls rebounded from her iron ribs as though they were made of India rubber. The shock of the bursting shells shook the earth, but harmed not this impregnable floating fortress. The United States fleet was at her mercy. The shells of her great guns threatened every seaboard town of the nation. Never in naval history bad there been so terrible a battleship as the one which rode, triumphant, invulnerable, in the waters of Hampton Roads. Then night pulled down the curtain on the first act of the great drama. Great was the suspense of the nation. The telegraph had flashed the news north and south. Iu the South it was like the Day of Jubilee. A great victory had been won and greater triumphs were promised. The North was terrorstricken. What might not this fearful monster do? At Washington all was consternation. Seward, Chase, Stanton and Wells hastened to White House to confer with the President. " The Merrimac will change the whole character of the .world," Stanton declared. M She will destroy, seriatim, every naval vessel ; she will lay all the cities on the seaboard under contribution. I have no doubt but at this moment the monster is on her way to Washington." Rising and looking out of the window, which offered a view of the Potomac for many miles, he coutinued, his excitement increasing : "Not unlikely we shall have from one of her guns a shell or cannon ball in the White House before we leave this room." The most skilled dramatist could not have made the situation more intense. With the morning the curtain lifted. Slowly, confident of easy victory here and of greater glories to come, the massive Merrimac steamed toward her apparently helpless victim, the grounded Minnesota. At thi3 critical moment there darted out from behind the Minnesota, whose immense bulk had effectually concealed her until the instant a craft of so strange and novel an appearance as to cause an onlooker to exclaim, " A tin can on a shingle !" This was Ericsson's Monitor. Straight toward the formidable fortress of iron steamed the brave Utile bout; and the world's first battle between ironclad 3 commenced. The great guns thundered. Shells and cannon balls pounded the iron are mour of the two vessel:?, doing little damage. Like gladiators in an arena they maticcuvred ; advanced, retreated turned, doubled, rushed at each other, yet neither gaining any absolute advantage over the other. An officer on board the Merrimac discovered a division standing " ease." " Why are not these men firing ?" he demanded. " Our powder is very precious," was the reply, " and after two hours' incessant firing I find I can do her about as much damage by snipping my thumb at her every two and a-half minutes." Sometimes the two ships were so close that their cannons spit spitefully into each other's mouths ; and the shock of the great balls crashing against the iron sides threw men off their feet, yet failed to penetrate the armour. For four hours, from 8 o'clock in the morning until noon, the two ships hurled heavy shot and shell at one another, with hardly a casualty. Then a shell from the muzzle of a gun, not ten yards distant, struck the pilot-house of the Monitor, directly in the sight hole, and exploded. Captain Worden, who commanded the ship, was standing right behind this spot, and rc> ceived in the face the force of the blow. He staggered back, partly stunned and with eyes blinded with powder. The bursting shell had blown' an opening in the pilot-house ; and the flood of light rushing in caused Worden, blinded as he was, to believe the pilot-house seriously damaged ; and he gave the order to "sheer off." The brave officer thought himself mortally wounded ; yet his fortitude never for a moment forsook him. He inquired repeatedly of the progress of affairs, and when told the Minnesota was saved, he said : " Then I can die happy." However, lm wounds, though serious, were not mortal. The battle was over. The Merrimac retreated toward Norfolk. The Monitor made no effort to follow. It was not a decisive victory. Both sides claimed the advantage, but the results were all in favour of the Union. The little Monitor had halted the mighty Merrimac. In the following May, when Norfolk was evacuated, the Confederates were forced to destroy the Merrimac ; and in December of the same year the Monitor foundered off Cape Hatteraß. Their careers were brief, but their memories are glorious.