A History of the United States Navy, from 1775 to 1893 Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...some time for a position, and an opportunity at last presented itself. On went the ironclad at full speed, but her vigilant foe eluded the shock, so that only a slanting blow was given. One of the men in the Merrimac wrote: "Nearly two hours passed, and many a shot and shell were exchanged at close quarters, with no perceptible damage to either side. The Merrimac is discouragingly cumbrous and unwieldy. To wind her for each broadside fifteen minutes are lost, while during all this time the Monitor is whirling around and about like a top, and the easy working of her turret and her precise and rapid movements elicit the wondering admiration of all. She is evidently invulnerable to our shell. Our next movement is to run her down. We ram her with all our force. But she is so flat and broad that she merely slides away from under our hull, as a floating door would slip away from under the cutwater of a barge. All that we could do was to push her. Lieutenant Jones now determined to board her, to choke 1862. AT CLOSE QUARTERS. 319 her turret in some way, and lash her to the Merrimac. The blood is rushing through our veins, the shrill pipe and the hoarse roar of the boatswain, 'Boarders away ' are heard, but lo, our enemy has hauled off into shoal water, where she is safe from our ship as if she was on the topmost peak of Blue Ridge." "Her bow passed over our deck," wrote Chief-Engineer Albans C. Stimers, who was a volunteer in the Monitor, to Ericsson, "and our sharp upper edge rail cut through the light iron shoe upon her stem, and well into her oak." At the instant of the collision Lieutenant Greene planted an 11-inch shot on the Merrimac1 s forward casemate, which crushed in the iron and shattered the wooden...