ss southward as he could
with his unwieldy and dangerous craft, which had been designed only for
the smooth waters of rivers and harbors and which was wholly unable to
cope with the boisterous Atlantic. There was a brisk wind, and the
vessel was soon in imminent danger of foundering. The waves broke over
her smoke-stack and poured down into her fires, so that steam could not
be kept up; the blowers which ventilated the ship would not work, and
she became filled with gas which rendered some of her crew unconscious.
Undoubtedly she would have gone to the bottom very shortly had not the
wind moderated. Even then, it was almost a miracle that she should win
through, but win through she did, and at four o'clock on the afternoon
of Saturday, March 8, as she was passing Cape Henry, Captain Worden
heard the distant booming of guns. As darkness came, he saw far ahead
the glare of the burning Congress.

About midnight, the little vessel crept up beside the Minnesota and
anchored. Her crew were completely exhausted. For fifty hours, they had
fought to keep their ship afloat, and on the morrow they must be
prepared to meet a formidable foe. All that night they worked with their
vessel, making such repairs as they could. At eight o'clock next
morning, the Merrimac appeared, and the Monitor started to meet her.

Amazed at sight of what appeared to be an iron turret sliding over the
water toward him, the commander of the Merrimac swung toward this tiny
antagonist, intending to destroy her before proceeding to the work in
hand. Captain Worden had taken his station in the pilot-house, and
reserved his fire until within short range. Then, slowly circling about
his unwieldy foe, he fired shot after shot, which, while they did not
disable her, prevented her from destroying the Union ships in the
harbor. Finding the Monitor apparently invulnerable, and with her
machinery giving trouble, the Merrimac at last withdrew to Norfolk.

That the battle was a victory for the Monitor cannot be questioned; she
had prevented the destruction of the Union ships, and this she continued
to do, until, in the following May, the Confederates, finding themselves
compelled to abandon Norfolk, set the Merrimac on fire and blew her up.
Six months later, the Monitor met a tragic fate, foundering in a storm
off Cape Hatteras, a portion of her crew going down with her.

Honors were showered upon Worden for his gallant work. He was given
command of the monitor Mon