The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-19

coast and many things besides, yet acct
dent. chance or what not was instigator
and arbiter from first to last
After seven months of incubation, dur
ing which time stories of her marvellous
powers had terrorized the north, the ram
Merrimac entered Hampton Roads on
March s, attacked the Union gunboat fleet,
sank one and burned another of our finest
frigates and then lay by for favorable
tides to enable her to visit similar fate
upon the others. At that time the only
other ironclad in existence, and the only
possible match for the Confederate ram,
would have been from twenty-four to sixty
hours distant from the scene instead Of
within sound of the guns, as she actually
was, had the plans of her manipulators
been carried out. Her presence in the vicin-
ity was due to an accident, and in fact, but
for an accident she would not have been in
existence at all When the news of the
building of the Merrimac and other pro-
iected ironclads of the Confederacy was
confirmed at Washington in midsummer,
1861, congress authorized the construction
of similar ones, and placed the matter in
the hands of naval board. Capt. Erics-
son had plan partly in his brain and
partly upon paper. the latter in the hands
of his friends, who placed it before the
naval board, only to receive a rebuff.
One of Ericsson's colleagues, G. S. Bush
nell, of New Haven, thought that the in
ventor would be his own best ambassador,
and deliberately Lied in order to get him
before the naval board. He told Ericsson
that his planlwas approved and that the
chief of the board, Admiral Smith, wished
to talk over details with the protector in
person. Ericsson hurried to Washington,
and was so annoyed over the deception and
the Disappointment when the truth dawned
upon him that his angry eloquence over
powered the opposition. Gentlemen"
said he, latter what have said consider
it to be your duty to the country to give
me an order to build the vessel before
leave this room" The upshot was an order
to build an ironclad within one hundred
days. This was accident number one.
Ericsson promptly divided the labor
among leading iron manufactures and
work was kept up night and day from De-
cember to March. It was novel struc-
ture and the men to handle it needed to be
trained by the inventor, and the machinery
itself was something that required fire.
quent testings and alterations. FINALLY all
was ready for trial trip, and with volun-
teer officers and crew the Mentor left
New York at midday March 6, 1862. Her
commander was Lieut.. j., L. Worden of
the navy, with Lieut. S. d. Greene second
in command The crew were volunteers
from wooden gunboats then in service.
Worden's orders were to proceed to Fortress
Monroe, the impending seat of war, by
reason of the preparations in the Confed-
eracy for a naval raid on the Chesapeake
bay and the Potomac rivers The north
was anxious to keep the Potomac and the
bay open to preserve water route to
Washington, the south to close them. The
existence of the new iron ram Merrimac at
Norfolk and her expected prowess as leader
of the southern fleet had been certified by
| the authorities in Washington, and to be
brief they were ready to surrender the
| main point-the Observation-Disclosures blow
had been struck. When it was announced
in Washington that the Monitor was
ready to sail, a dispatch was sent ordering
her to steam up the Potomac to the CAPT,
tai When this dispatch reached New
| York the iroaclad was at sea and tug
that went in. chase failed to overtake her.
Here was accident number two. So the
Monitor sailed on across the Chesapeake
| past the mouth Of the Potomac to Fortress
Monroe, arriving late in the evening of the
6th, the last few miles of the voyage being
within sound of the guns in the fight be-
tween the Merrimac and the wooden fleet.
Meanwhile the dispatch that had failed to
| change the Monitors destination on leav-
| ing New York had been forwarded to For
| tress Monroe. The naval commander there
was Capt. John Marston, and when the
novel craft came to hand he deliberated.
! IL e, 40 tba h11r tho
| lost Cumberland, the Minnesota aground
and riddled with shot, the Roanoke and
ST. Lawrence pierced with heavy shells
from the Merrimac's guns and the redoubt-
able ram lying just across the channel
Enthusiastically the victor in the first ell
counter, and only breathing and waiting
for daylight and happy tide to sally from
her mooring and make an end to the Union
| fleet on the lower Chesapeake. On the
other hand, imperative orders to send the
! Monitor to Washington, uncertainty as to
whether the little black thing would be
worth button in fight anyway, and also
| whether, should she prove to be all that
| was claimed, prudence did not demand
that she be spared to defend the Potomac
| and the capital. He decided to break the
| cast iron routine of the service. substitute
common sense for red tape and send the
| floating experiment to the relief of the
disabled Minnesota down the channsl.
) This was tine key accident of tue series
Gke an auctfoneers third and last call.
The Monitor steamed to where the Mime
sofa lay, near the shore in the north chan
mel, about midnight March g. The out
| look of the Merrimac across the Roads on
the south shore got o glimpse of the strange
object by the light of the burning Con
gress. His report aroused the curiosity Of
| the officers upon the ram and they guessed
| that Ericsson's famed new continuance was
| also in the lists, though late arrival at
the tournament. Next morning they made
out the shape as that of "a cheese box on a
plank" or "a tin can on board"
The element OF daring was high in the
breasts of the Monitor people when they
closed with the enemy on the morning of
the 9th. The trip from New York down
| had brought out the weaknesses Of their