Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/253

Rh voyage from New York to Fortress Monroe. On the 7th March a light breeze sprang up and demonstrated the correctness of the theory that the Monitor was not adapted for sea-going voyages. A great deal of water entered at the base of the turret, and, to use the language of one of her officers, "she leaked like a sieve." The water came in through the holes of the blower-pipes, through the chimneys, and into the top of the turret and it even dashed into the peep-holes of the pilot house with such force as to knock the helmsman away from the wheel. The belts of the blower engines slipped in consequence of their wetting, and there was not sufficient draught for purposes of combustion. Two ofificers and several men of the crew were overcome by the noxious gases that formed in the engine room, and narrowly escaped suffocation. At one time the fires were nearly extinguished, the engine room was half filled with water, and only the cessation of the breeze saved the Monitor from going to the bottom of the Atlantic before she had an opportunity to fire a single shot at the enemy.

During the night of the 7th rough water was again encountered, and the same troubles arose. The darkness added to the danger, and to make matters worse the wheel ropes became jammed, and the hawser that connected the Monitor with the tow-boat was the only safety of the former. If it had given way she would have inevitably been lost. At 4 on Saturday, March 8th, the Monitor passed Cape Henry, and her crew heard the booming of the guns that betokened trouble in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe, about twenty miles distant. Capt. Worden immediately ordered all preparations made for battle, and when the Monitor anchored in Hampton Roads at nine o'clock she was ready for earnest work. It was about noon on the 8th of March when the Merrimac steamed down from Norfolk in the direction of the Union fleet, which was anchored near Fortress Monroe and