Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1862-03-21


of genuine self-denial, and to elevate us
up to higher standard of christian char
acter and simplicity, that God has suffer-
ed these great calamitles to fall upon MS.
CAPT. ERICSSON ON THE HONITOR.
There was special meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday,
the 18th inst, to consider the condition
of naval affairs, and the harbor defenses
of New York City. We copy the follow
ing from the 7ribuac's report:
"Capt Ericsson on the invitation of
the Chamber, arose, and was received with
applause. He said: have the great sat-
isfaction to tell the gentlemen that this
morning, few minutes after | was called
upon to attend this meeting, | got a letter
from Mr. Sinners. | sent copy Of it
to the Evening Post, so that the press
could have it In the morning. l will now
read you Capt. Sinners letter.
Iron Clad Monitor, Hampton
Roads, March 8, 1862.
My DEAR SIR After stormy passage, which
proved us to be the finest boat was ever in,
we fought the Merrimac for more than three hours
this forenoon, and sent her back to Norfolk in a
sinking condition. Iron clad against iron clad.
We maneuvered about the bay here, and went at
each n her with mutual fprrpOpSs. | consider
that both ships were well fought. We were
| struck % times-pilothOuse twice, turret nine
times, side armor eight times, deck three times.
The only WI nerable point was the pilot house.
One of your great logs % by IL inches thick is
| broken in two. The shot struck Just outside of
where the captain had his eye and it has disabled
| him by destroying his left eye and temporarily
| binding the other.
That is proved since not to be so. 1t
was imagined at first that his eye was
lost.
The log is not quite in two but is broken and
pressed inward l IL inches. .
This shows the immense force of these
shots. This beam is 8 inches by IL. and
of the best wrought iron. This gives an
idea of the difficulty of resisting these
shot, and yet we have succeeded in the tur-
ret of doing so. .
She tried to run us down and sink us as she did
| the Cumberland yesterday, but she got the worst
of it. Her bow passed over our deck, and our
sharp upper edged side cut through the light iron
shoe upon upon her stem, and well into her oak. I.
She will not try that again. She gave us a tre-
| mendous thump but did no injure us in the least
We are just able to find the point of contact
This was gratifying, that after such a
concussion it was difficult to see where
she struck her. ..
The turret is a splendid structure, don't
think much of the shield, but the pendulums are
| fine things, though cannot tell you how much
| they stand the shot, as they were not hit.
The shield is and extra thickness of
two inches on the fighting side. 1t was
placed there principally on account of the
sound. | was afraid that the force of
the shock would knock the men down.
] You were very correct in your estimate of the
effect of shot upon the men on the inside
/ of the turret when it was struck near him.
| Three men were knocked down, of whom | was
one the other two had to be carried below, but |
was not disabled at all, and the Others recovered
before the battle was over.
Before the Monitor left charged the
officer particularly to tell the men not to
frightened. told him to tell the men
let every man 60 down on his knees, and
don't be alarmed when the rebel shot
strikes you, because it wont hurt you.
they all put the question to him, Wont
the shot 60 through 2" "No," says he,
sit will stay out" +" Then we don't care, "
they said. But for this precaution there
would have been great CONSERVATION when
the turret was struck. You may estimate
the shock when shot of 200 pounds w.t.,
moving at the rate of 1000 feet in sec
ond, strikes within a foot of mans
head. ~, m.
Capt Wordan stationed himself at the pilot
house Greene fired the guns, and turned the
turet until the Captain was disabled, and relieved
by Greene, when managed the turret myself,
Master Sudden having been one Of the stunned
men.
| | proposed to the captain to let the sail,
ing master turn the turret. On one side
of the turret there is telescope, reflect
or, the image being bent by a prism. This
sailing master. who has nothing to do on
the Monitor, proposed that he should be
stationed there. He not only looked
through the telescope, but by means Of .