with the _Southfield_ that the victim could not be shaken off,
and as she sank she carried her foe with her. The bow of the ironclad
dipped below the surface, and a most extraordinary and inglorious end
seemed inevitable, when the _Southfield_ touched bottom, rolled over and
freed itself from the bow of the ram, which popped up again.

Meanwhile the _Miami_ was pounding the iron hide of the monster, which
shed the missiles as the _Merrimac_ shed the broadsides from the
_Cumberland_ and _Congress_. When only a few feet from the _Albemarle_,
Lieutenant Flusser, standing directly behind a gun of the _Miami_, let
fly with a heavy shell, which, striking the armor of the _Albemarle_,
was shivered into a thousand fragments, most of which rebounding,
instantly killed the officer and wounded a dozen men. The _Miami_
retreated, and the next day Plymouth surrendered to the Confederates.

In May, the _Albemarle_ steamed down into the Sound and attacked the
Union gunboats, which made a heroic defence. The monster received
broadside after broadside and was repeatedly rammed, but suffered no
material damage, while she killed 4, wounded 25 and caused the scalding
of 13, through piercing the boiler of one of her assailants.

It will be seen that this ironclad had become a formidable menace to the
Union arms, not only in the immediate neighborhood, but further north.
It was the intention of her commander to clear out the fleets at the
mouth of the river, and then make an excursion up the coast, somewhat
like that which Secretary Stanton once believed the _Merrimac_ was about
to undertake. General Grant was pressing his final campaign against
Richmond, and the _Albemarle_ threatened to interfere with his plans,
for if she made the diversion of which she was capable, she was likely
to postpone indefinitely the wind up of the war.

Ah, if some daring scheme could be perfected for destroying the
_Albemarle_! What a feat it would be and how vast the good it would
accomplish! There was one young officer in the American navy who
believed the thing could be done, and he volunteered to undertake it.

Well aware that the Unionists would neglect no means of blowing up the
_Albemarle_, the Confederates used every possible precaution. At the
wharf in Plymouth, where she was moored, a thousand soldiers were on
guard, and her crew, consisting of sixty men, were alert and vigilant.
To prevent the approach of a torpedo boat, the ram was surrounded by