Arizona republican., 1892-07-20

uhNdl WOIlu uONUs NnO should rule the wave on the American coast and many things besides, yet acci- 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 g, 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 Confederats 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 yicin- 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 jected 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 a naval board, Capt. Fries 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 rebuf.
 One of Ericsson's colleagues, C. s. Bush neil, 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 plan was approved and that the chief of the board, Admiral Smith, wished m. T gI- .{,l person. Ericsson hurried to Washington, and was so annoyed over the deception and the disappointment when the truth dawned upon him that bis angry elOquence over powered the opposition. "Gentlemen," said he, "after what have said consider it to be your duty to the country to give me m order to build the vessel before l 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 manufactories and work was kept up night and day from De cember to March. It was a novel struc- ture and the men to handle it needed to be trained by the inventor, and the machinery itself was something that required ire quent testings and alterations. Finally all was ready for a trial trip, and with volun- teer officers and crew the Monitor left New York at midday March 6, 1862 Her commander was Lieut.. ]. l.. Worden. of the navy, with Lieut., $. D. Greene second in command. The crew were volunteers from wooden gunboats then in service. Worden's Orlers were to proceed to Fortress Monroe, the impending seat of war, by reason Gf the pr'paTisioJiS in the Confed- eracy for naval raid OE 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 Chesapeake before blow had been struck. When it was announced in Washington that the Monitor was ready to sail, dispatch was sent ordering her to steam up the Potomac to the capi- tai When this dispatch reached New York the ironcad was at sea and a 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 sth, 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 leay- ing New York had been forwarded to For tress Moproe. The naval commander there was Capt Johp Marston, and when the novel craft came to hand he deliberated. On the one side the burning Congress, the 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 unquestionably the victor in the first en- counter. and only breathing and waiting for daylight and happy tide to sally from