the Federals, she steamed alongside the former,
delivered a raking fire, and then, turning upon the _Cumberland_,
attacked that vessel with her ram. Of the _Cumberland_ she made quick
work; for having torn a gaping rent in her side, she poured a damaging
fire into the gap, hanging on by the sharp iron beak with which
steam-rams are furnished.

Then withdrawing to a short distance, she again charged her adversary,
and delivered a second terrible fire, until the _Cumberland_ finally
sank. The Merrimac then turned her attention to the _Congress_, whose
fate she sealed in about half an hour. The first shot caused fearful
destruction, killing every man at one of the guns, blowing away the
bulk-heads, strewing the deck with a carnage too horrible to dwell upon,
and finally setting the ship on fire. The _Congress_ at last struck her
colours, but during the night she blew up.

This formidable vessel had subsequently to haul down her colours before
the _Monitor_--in a figurative sense, that is, for she did not actually
surrender, but retreated after a contest of some hours. In this notable
struggle the _Merrimac_ sustained much damage, without succeeding in
inflicting on her enemy anything like the same amount of injury; in
fact, the _Monitor_ came out of the action scathless.

The changes that are taking place in the construction of war-ships are
so various and so rapid, that we cannot attempt to do more here than
take note of a few of the principal; and even what are mentioned as
novelties now, before these pages appear may have ceased to be
novelties.

Iron is now employed in almost every part of a war-ship, the masts
themselves being in many cases of iron--hollow tubes through which the
running rigging may be let down when there is danger of its being
damaged by the enemy's fire. The majority of modern ironclads are built
in compartments, with this advantage that, if damage is sustained in one
part of the vessel, and the water rush in through the gap made by shot
or any other cause, the ship will still float until the water can be let
out again.

The American ironclad turret-ship _Monitor_ has given her name to a
whole class of vessels built within recent years for the English navy;
but in many respects our vessels are superior to their American
prototype. All these ships--which are characterised by low free-boards
and absence of masts and sails--fight their guns from turrets. They are
sometimes known as "coas