er
queer appearance made them look at their new foe with contempt; but the
first shock of battle did away with this feeling. The Merrimac turned on
her foe her rifleguns, intending to blow her out of the water, but
the shot glanced from the thick iron turret of the Monitor. Then the
Monitors guns opened fire, and as the great balls struck the sides of
the ram her plates started and her timbers gave. Had the Monitor been
such a vessel as those of her type produced later in the war, the ram
would have been sunk then and there; but as it was her shot were not
quite heavy enough to pierce the iron walls. Around and around the two
strange combatants hovered, their guns bellowing without cessation,
while the men on the frigates and on shore watched the result with
breathless interest. Neither the Merrimac nor the Monitor could dispose
of its antagonist. The ram's guns could not damage the turret, and the
Monitor was able dexterously to avoid the stroke of the formidable
prow. On the other hand, the shot of the Monitor could not penetrate the
Merrimac's tough sides. Accordingly, fierce though the struggle was, and
much though there was that hinged on it, it was not bloody in character.
The Merrimac could neither destroy nor evade the Monitor. She could not
sink her when she tried to, and when she abandoned her and turned to
attack one of the other wooden vessels, the little turreted ship was
thrown across her path, so that the fight had to be renewed. Both sides
grew thoroughly exhausted, and finally the battle ceased by mutual
consent.

Nothing more could be done. The ram was badly damaged, and there was
no help for her save to put back to the port whence she had come. Twice
afterward she came out, but neither time did she come near enough to the
Monitor to attack her, and the latter could not move off where she would
cease to protect the wooden vessels. The ram was ultimately blown up by
the Confederates on the advance of the Union army.

Tactically, the fight was a drawn battle--neither ship being able to
damage the other, and both ships, being fought to a standstill; but
the moral and material effects were wholly in favor of the Monitor. Her
victory was hailed with exultant joy throughout the whole Union, and
exercised a correspondingly depressing effect in the Confederacy; while
every naval man throughout the world, who possessed eyes to see, saw
that the fight in Hampton Roads had inaugurated a new era in ocean
warfare