eturned to
their homes. Port Royal was held by the Northern forces until the end
of the war, and proved of great value for the proper maintenance of
the blockade. Its greatest disadvantage was its unhealthiness. Of
fifteen thousand men landed there in November, five thousand were on
the sick-list within a month.

CHAPTER IX.

THE FIRST IRON-CLAD VESSELS IN HISTORY. -- THE "MERRIMAC" SINKS
THE "CUMBERLAND," AND DESTROYS THE "CONGRESS." -- DUEL BETWEEN
THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC."

It will be remembered that when the Union forces, alarmed by the
threatening attitude of the inhabitants of Norfolk and the vicinity,
fled from the Norfolk navy-yard, leaving every thing there in flames,
they left behind them a fine United States frigate, "Merrimac," a ship
of thirty-five hundred tons, carrying forty guns. The departing
Federals did their work of destruction fairly well; for the great ship
was burnt to the upper edge of her copper sheathing, and sank to the
bottom of the river. Three or four months after the occupation of the
Norfolk navy-yard by the Confederates, Lieut. George M. Brooke, an
ex-officer of the United States navy, who had resigned that he might
follow the fortunes of his State, while looking at the hulk lying in
the river-channel, was suddenly inspired with the thought that she
might be raised and converted into a formidable vessel-of-war. He
carefully matured his plans, and after due consideration proposed to
the Confederate secretary of the navy, that the "Merrimac" be raised
and converted into an iron-clad. His plans were approved, and orders
were given that they should be carried out. The "Merrimac," as
originally built, was one of the grand old types of war-vessels. Her
solid oak sides rose high above the water, and were pierced by a long
row of gaping portholes. Her masts towered high in the air; and when
her great sails were set, her hull seemed crushed beneath so vast an
expanse of canvas. When she had been remodelled, her entire appearance
was changed. She had no longer the appearance of a ship, but seemed
like a house afloat; and tradition says that the old salt on the
"Cumberland," who first sighted her, reported gravely to the officer
of the deck, "Quaker meetin'-house floating down the bay, sir."

When the hulk had been raised and placed in the dry-dock, the first
thing done was to cut it down to the level of the berth-deck; that is,
to the level of the deck below the gun