battle. Neither side had won the victory,
but it was a famous fight for all that. For it was the first battle of
iron-clad ships in the history of the world. Since then no great warship
has been built without iron sides. Only small vessels are now made all
of wood.

That was the first and last battle of the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_.
For a long time they watched each other like two bull-dogs ready for a
fight. But neither came to blows. Then, two months after the great
battle, the _Merrimac_ was set on fire and blown up. The Union forces
were getting near Norfolk and her officers were afraid she would be
taken, so they did what the Union officers had done before.

The _Monitor_ had done her work well, but her time also soon came. Ten
months after the great battle she was sent out to sea, and there she
went to the bottom in a gale. Such was the fate of the pioneer
iron-clads. But they had fought a mighty fight, and had taught the
nations of the world a lesson they would not soon forget.

In that grim deed between the first two iron-clad ships a revolution
took place in naval war. The great frigates, with their long rows of
guns, were soon to be of little more use than floating logs. More than
forty years have passed since then, and now all the great war-vessels
are clad in armor of the hardest steel.

CHAPTER XXIII

COMMODORE FARRAGUT WINS RENOWN

THE HERO OF MOBILE BAY LASHES HIMSELF TO THE MAST

AN old friend of ours is David G. Farragut. We met him, you may
remember, years ago, on the old _Essex_, under Captain Porter, when he
was a boy of only about ten years of age. Young as he was, he did good
work on that fine ship during her cruise in the Pacific and her last
great fight.

When the Civil War began Farragut had got to be quite an old boy. He was
sixty years of age and a captain in the navy. He had been born in the
South and now lived in Virginia, and the Confederates very much wanted
him to fight on their side.

"Not after fighting fifty years for the old flag," he said. "And mind
what I tell you; you fellows will catch much more than you want before
you get through with this business."

And so Farragut reported for duty under the old flag.

Very soon the ships of the government were busy all along the coast,
blockading ports and chasing blockade runners, and fighting wherever
they saw a chance.

One such chance, a big one, came away down South. For there was the
large City of New Orlea