The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-12 00:00:00

:BER.

7HE CIVL

A MERL

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
- NEW YORK, APRIL 29, 1862.
SlR—There appcars to love bi 7 (Al so much said
in Paili.nlent u!,d o,e Britit,lh jour.: 1s
respecting the eaHtel " -Nay*:
limptou it may beh.:,:pceted bs th©
time this let c. Eriglano, the "gr."al, h.:.,:cite-
ment" which York prehs t.:escrib(s to Im.ve
been created by wonderful doings of the -Mcni-
tor, &c., may bav:. somewhat subsided-4t:l. 111,re-
fore, any lengftencd observations of mine V, Id be
of little interest to your readers—l shill o.)!.thrse
my remarks upon the subject (one, hcwiever, of
much indirect importance to all Maritime nations)
—into as few words, and those as practical as may
be.

Indeed, it does seem to me that many persons in
the "old country" have been misled by the usual
rather grandiose and scmetirncs very imaginative.
style of description pracisk dby the uetelity of
newspapers in this country, into supposiog that the
case of the Monitor, or the Monitor part of the case,
decided or suggested even any new or any impor-
tant point whatever. It may appear dogmatic, but
I give my opinion, quail& val., an opinion toi, atec.l
upon a general knowledge of the construction of
" iron-clad," and " unclad," and " turreted," and so
forth, vessels of yi at ; and thht I have read " all and
sundry" the accounts and reports, official and other,
published connected w ith the affair at Hampton
Roads ; and the conclusion I have arrived at is, that
the Monitor may or !Tiny not, be a great
ment," and be, es the Ns w York journals in effect,
and some in words, describe her, as the greatest
war-ship in "all creation," but there has been no
trial of her in a bona fide sense.
She, as you are aware, came in at the ma (vir-
tually) of the business; and only for the steam-tugs
which accompanied It in in her voyage from New
York to James River, would not (as the Irish phrase
would have it) have come in for " that same."
Because the "sea," which did not affect them
much, yet nearly put her fires and herself
hors de combat. And in relation to her
" Yard arm and yard arm fight" with the Merrimac,
I seek not to be hypercritical in phrase in such
things. There 'were no ma Sts nor Yards in the
matter; but taking the term in the allegorical
sense—as a fact, the Monitor (probably 'very judi-
ciously and skilfully) kept " dodging about" as far
from her rather ugly-looking customer as the shoal
water permitted, and that customer being the Mer-
rimac, which had been fighting and firing the day
before, it appears to have been forgotten by most
commentators, to the exhaustion, more or less, of
crew, coal, and ammunition, obviously had no ob-
ject in continuing an encounter under the circum-
stances. No doubt the Merrimac performed much,
but also it is evident she " stole a march" on the
United States vessels, and on the authorities at Fort
Monroe. The New York papers have bean mu-
tually accusing each biller and excusing then elves
for having systematically persisted in despising that
said Merrimac. They stated for months before she
Ras " no good," was " lop sided," would run her
rostrum into the mud," &0., &c. However, she
appears to have been well managed, bat in an engi-
neering point of view it does appear to me, with all
due deference to the opinions given in Parliarrent
and elsewhere, but with some reliance on the facts
of the affair, that also, in reference to her, there
has been " too much talk about it."
Her antagonists were unprepared—some aground
and some ran aground—rand as an important point
in considering the abstract question, but as no re-
proach (for there never was fault to find with the
skill or courage of the United States navy), the
sudden appearance of this new sort of craft did
" scare" them a little. Why, some of the "promi-
nent men" of this city itself are still " scared" at
the " idea" of a visit from her. Anyway, the firing
at her was most irregular and hurried, and possibly
any smart and equally well managed and fast-
steaming war vessel of wood or iron would have
done as much in the same time. However, there
has been, in my humble opinion, quite enough
" imagination" already, and I shall not add there-
to. It appears to have escaped the notice of the
commentators in England that the Monitor used
cast, and not wrought, iron balls. It is stated
that the latter were considered too dangerous to
the guns on amunt of the rapid firing required.
If the Monitor: had sustained without serious
damage one broadside frcm a large man-of- war, or
a volley from a fort of large guns, that alight have
entitled her to be considered the ron-such all in
the New York and many in the B:iitish newspapers,
&c., appear to have determined her to be. All I
maintain is that in the broad bona fide sense she
had no trial whatever of such importance as to con-
stitute her a " criterion or example?'
How or why fortifications have been brought on
the tapis quoad any results from or of this" Hamp-
ton Roads battle" appears to me also strange.
Probably some of the British public in reading the
rather poetical and diffuse accounts of the light
imagined Fortress Monroe took part, whereas it
had no more say to it than the Tower of London.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
A BRITISH TRAVELLER.
From the accounts given after the first
tion of the" naval engagement," it appearse several
of the the lives lost on board the congress are a
on friend
able to Federal troops on shore firing
and foe when the steam-tug of the Merrimaa was
alongside taking possession after the Congress had
to circumstance
to show that it would be unfair to judge of
surrendered. I merely allude the descrip-
the
merits of the
Merrimac altogether from the loss
and damages sustained by her antagonists in the
encounter.