694

THE FIRST FIGHT OF I RON-CLADS.

REMODELING THE“MERRIMAC” AT THE GOSPORTNAVY YARD.

[For a statement of the details of thevessel differing from them as shown inthis picture, see p. 717.]

used as bow and stern chasers or quartering. Over the gun-deck was a lightgrating, making a promenade about twenty feet wide. The wood backing wascovered with iron plates, rolled at the Tredegar works, two inches thick andeight wide. The first tier was put on horizontally, the second up and down,—in all to the thickness of four inches, bolted through the wood-work andclinched. The prow was of cast-iron, projecting four feet, and badly secured,as events proved. The rudder and propeller were entirely unprotected. Thepilot-house was forward of the smoke-stack, and covered with the same thick-ness of iron as the sides. The motive power was the same that had alwaysbeen in the ship. Both of the engines and boilers had been condemned on herreturn from her last cruise, and were radically defective. Of course, the fireand sinking had not improved them. We could not depend upon them forsix hours at a time. A more ill-contrived or unreliable pair of engines couldonly have been found in some vessels of the United States navy.

Lieutenant Catesby ap R. Jones was ordered to superintend the armament,and no more thoroughly competent officer could have been selected. To hisexperience and skill as her ordnance and executive officer was due the charac-ter of her battery, which proved so efficient. It consisted of 2 7-inch rifles,heavily reenforced around the breech with 3-inch steel bands, shrank on.These were the first heavy guns so made, and were the bow and stern pivots.There were also 2 6-inch rifles of the same make, and 6 9-inch smooth-borebroadside,—10 guns in all.

During the summer and fall of 1861 I had been stationed at the batterieson the Potomac at Evansport and Aquia Creek, blockading the river as faras possible. In January, 1862, I was ordered to the Virginia as one of thelieutenants, reporting to Commodore French Forrest, who then commandedthe navy yard at Norfolk . Commodore Franklin Buchanan was appointedto the command,— an energetic and high-toned officer, who combined withdaring courage great professional ability, standing deservedly at the head ofhis profession. In 1845 he had been selected by Mr. Bancroft, Secretary of