ruction. The opening of her career was
promising. She attacked the Union gunboats and fort at
Plymouth, near the mouth of the river, captured one of the
boats, sunk another, and aided in forcing the fort to
surrender, its garrison being taken prisoners. It had been
assailed at the same time by a strong land force, and the
next day Plymouth itself was taken by the Confederate
troops, with a heavy Union loss in men and material.

So far favoring fortune had attended the Albemarle.
Enlivened with success, on a morning in May she steamed out
into the deeper waters of Albemarle Bay, confident on
playing the same r[^o]le with the wooden vessels there that the
Merrimac had played in Hampton Roads. She failed in this
laudable enterprise. The Albemarle was not so formidable as
the Merrimac. The steamers of war which she was to meet were
more formidable than the Congress and the Cumberland. She
first encountered the Sassacus, a vessel of powerful
armament. More agile than the iron-clad, the Sassacus played
round her, exchanging shots, and seeking a vulnerable point.
At length, under a full head of steam, she dashed on the
monster, striking a blow which drove it bodily half under
the water. Recovering from the blow, the two vessels, almost
side by side, hurled 100-pound balls upon each other. Most
of those of the Sassacus bounded from the mailed sides of
her antagonist, like hail from stone walls. But three of
them entered a port, and did sad work within. In reply the
Albemarle sent one of her great bolts through a boiler of
the Sassacus, filling her with steam. So far the iron-clad
had the best of the game; but others of the fleet were now
near at hand; the balls which had entered her port had done
serious injury; she was no longer in fighting trim; she
turned and made the best of her way back to Plymouth, firing
as she fled.

This ended her career for that summer. But repairs were
made, and she was put in fighting trim again; another
gunboat was building as a consort; unless something were
quickly done she would soon be in Albemarle Sound again,
with possibly a different tale to tell from that of her
first assault.

At this critical juncture Lieutenant William B. Cushing, a
very young but a very bold officer, proposed a daring plan;
no less a one than to attack the Albemarle at her wharf,
explode a torpedo under her hull, and send her, if possible,
to the bottom of the Roanoke. He proposed to use a swift
steam-launch,