anchoring the ship at a point where the guns of a
strong fort could beat back all assailants. Here she lay for several
weeks, while the men on the blockaders were fuming at the thought that
they were to be kept idle, like cats watching a rat-hole. At last
Capt. Worden, who was there with his redoubtable monitor "Montauk,"
determined to destroy the privateer, despite the torpedoes and the big
guns of the fort. He accordingly began a movement up the river,
picking his way slowly through the obstructions. The fort began a
lively cannonade; but Worden soon found that he had nothing to fear
from that quarter, as the guns were not heavy enough to injure the
iron sides of the little monitor. But, as he went up the river, the
"Nashville" took the alarm and fled before him; and it seemed that the
most the Union fleet could do would be to keep her from coming down
again, for with her light draught she could keep well out of range of
the monitor's guns. But one morning Worden perceived a strange
commotion on the "Nashville;" and, looking carefully through his
glass, he saw that she was aground. Now was his time; and at once he
pushed forward to a point twelve hundred yards from her, and directly
under the guns of Fort MacAllister. From this point he began a
deliberate fire upon the doomed privateer. The great guns of the fort
were roaring away, and their shells came crashing against the sides of
the "Montauk;" but to this Worden paid no heed. It was splendid long
distance practice for his gunners; and, when they got the range, not a
shot missed the stranded Confederate vessel. From his pilot-house
Worden could see the crew of the "Nashville" escaping in boats,
leaping into the water over the sides,--doing anything to escape from
that terribly destructive fire. All the time the great fifteen-inch
shells were dropping into the vessel with fearful precision. By and by
a heavy fog fell upon the scene; but the gunners on the "Montauk" knew
where their enemy was, and kept up their steady fire, though they
could see nothing. When the fog lifted, they saw the "Nashville" a
mass of flames; and in a moment she blew up, covering the placid
surface of the river with blackened fragments. Then the "Montauk"
returned to her consorts, well satisfied with her day's work.

[Illustration: The "Nashville" burning a Prize.]

The last of the Confederate privateers to ravage the ocean was the
"Shenandoah," originally an English merchant-vessel engaged