Evening star., 1925-09-06

a momentous hope was held out in
| that last sentence, for should Great
Britain ally herself with the Southern
cause the Federal forces were doomed
to failure, Ericsson played no small
part in the drama of the Civil War,
for he saved the Northern fleet and
preserved to it the power of maintain
ing so close a blockade of the South
ern ports that supplies of food and
raw materials, so necessary to States
that had for generations produced but
cotton, were practically cut off. What
more irrefutable proof of this state
ment was needed than lay in the
empty knapSacks of the soldiers when
Lee surrendered at Appomattox?
1t was evident from this letter that
Ericsson was more than the dreamer,
more than the inventor. for he pos
sessed the vision of Il statesman and
the patriotism of a true citizen for
the land OF his adoption.
In the opinion of experts, the value
of the Monitor per Sc was greatly
overestimated because of the sig
nificance of the result of the fight be-
tween her and the Merrimac. AS
type, this boat did not prove as
serviceable as was expected, and ii
was not long before her plan of con-
struction was abandoned.
During Ericsson's last years his
chief interest lay in the study of tor
pedoes and sun motors. When he died
in 1889, his native government re-
quested that the body be returned to
Sweden. Because of the great esteem
felt for him and his service by Amer
lea, he was accorded the signal honor
of being borne home in the U. S. S.
Baltimore. His body rests today at
Filipstad.
His greatest memorial rises today
on the bank of the Potomac in the
city he helped to preserve as the Cap
ital of a united country. And yet it
would seem that he possesses a uni
versal memorial in the steel nayies
that swept the seven seas, floating
fortresses of ironclad strength, mount
ing such mighty guns as Ericsson
never dreamed OF. His is a lasting
fame-a fame made plangent by a
single naval engagement, the like of
which the world has never seen. Let
us glimpse its high points, since that
one action in Hampton Roads forever
banished wooden vessels from the
fleets of the earth.
X x
A S already stated, the Navy De-
partment of the United States
was we'll aware that the Merrimac
the press, no doubt, upon her compile
ton. that she was, as an invention,
failure, but did not know. could not
know, perhaps, that by March s, 1862,
she would steam out in her slow.
clumsy fashion, looking like a log
house of iron rails with her peaked
roof truncated on a line parallel with
her caves, toward the squadron
of the United States frigates.
Just off Newport News lay the Con-
gress, Cumberland, Minnesota, Ro-
anoke, St. Lawrence and smaller ves-
sells fitted out for service. The Con-
gress and the Cumberland in a
cleanly and festive mood, were flying
lines of washing and a fashion sug-
gestive of peace and not war. But
those lines of sun bleaching garments
were suddenly lowered and more por-
tentous signals hoisted as a strange
craft made her five-knots-an-hour
progress into the midst of a whole
squadron. Somehow it was like that
famous single division Of the British
forces that charged the whole Rus
sian army. 1t was bit breath taking,
to say the least.
Decks We're cleared for action, ships
were swung into position. and guns
were trained upon her iron sides,
but on she came, as fast as her en-
gines permitted. She seemed, to those
watching, somehow significant in spite
of the fact that she was unaccom-
panied and most unpretentious in size.
1t was a moving sight to see an iron
clad vessel challenge. single-handed,
whole squadron, for history had
never been written in that epic gran
deur on the waves before.
That strange craft carried 10 guns,
on each side and 1 at each
end of her iron cabin. She could de-
liver q broadside from her 9-inch
guns and was capable of ramming the
enemy, for she was built on the
scheme of the ancient Greek and
Roman galleys, her PROV being pro-
vided with an iron beak.
The Merrimac, making direct for
the towering Cumberland, whose guns
raked her iron sides in vain, rammed
her. the iron beak making a fearful
cash in the wooden ship. She stag
gered, the Merrimac reversed her
engines, but the beak refused to dis
lodge itself. Just as the great ship
settled by the head, the Iron beak
broke off and remained in the wound