. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . range, the distance between the vesselsfrequently being not more than a few yards. Worden skillfully manoeuviedhis quick-turning vessel, trying to find some vulnerable point in his he made a dash at her stern, hoping to disable her screw, which hethinks he missed by not more than two feet. Oui* shots ripped the iron ofthe Merrimac, while the reverberation of her shots against the tower causedanything but a pleasant sensation. While Stodder, who was stationed at them
. Battles and leaders of the Civil War : being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers . range, the distance between the vesselsfrequently being not more than a few yards. Worden skillfully manoeuviedhis quick-turning vessel, trying to find some vulnerable point in his he made a dash at her stern, hoping to disable her screw, which hethinks he missed by not more than two feet. Oui* shots ripped the iron ofthe Merrimac, while the reverberation of her shots against the tower causedanything but a pleasant sensation. While Stodder, who was stationed at themachine which controlled the revohing motion of the turret, was incau-tiously leaning against the side of the tower, a large shot struck in the vicinityand disabled him. He left the turret and went below, and Stimers, who hadassisted him, continued to do the work. The drawbacks to the position of the pilot-house were soon realized. Wecould not fire ahead nor within several points of the bow, since the blastfrom our own guns would have injured the people in the pilot-house, only 7^4 IN THE •■MONITOR u a few yards off. Kt-eler and Toffey passedtbo f-aptaius orders aud messages to me, andmy inquiries and answers to him, the spi-aking-tulie from the pilot-house to the tmTet havingbeen broken early in the action. They per-formed their work with zeal and alacrity, but,both being landsmen, oui technical communi-cations sometimes miscarried. The situationwas novel: a vessel of war was engaged in des-perate combat with a powerfid foe; the cap-tain, commanding and guiding, was inclosed inline place, and the executive officer, workingand fighting the guns, was shut up in another,and communication between them was difficultand uncertain. It was this experience whichcaused Isaac Ne-\vton, immediately after the en-gagement, to suggest the clever plan of puttingthe pilot-house on toj) of the tiuTet, and makingit cyliudi-ical instead of sf^uare; and his sug-gestions were subsequent
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidbattlesleade, bookyear1887
