76 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The action commenced by the Atlanta firing three shots. The Wce- 

 hawken then replied with her fifteen-inch gun, throwing a solid shot of 

 440 pounds ; and the first shot virtually decided the action, for the ter- 

 rible missile tore through the Atlanta's iron-plating and timber-backing, 

 as if it were stubble, and prostrated about forty of her crew, some by 

 splinters, but the most part by the mere concussion. 



The second shot struck one of the Atlanta's port-stoppers, which 

 were protected by four inches of wrought iron, knocking it into 

 fragments, and wounding seventeen men. The third shot smashed the 

 top of the pilot-house, wounding two of the pilots, and stunned the 

 two men at the wheel, prostrating the whole four on the floor of the 

 pilot-house. The fourth shot struck her on the knuckle, that is, where 

 the iron casemate joins at a sharp angle the iron plating of the side ; and 

 the fifth shot went through her smoke-stack. After the fifth shot, the 

 Atlanta surrendered ; the whole action, from the firing of the first gun, 

 being over in fifteen minutes. The U. S. Secretary of the Navy, in 

 commenting on this engagement in his report to Congress, Dec. 1863, 

 says : " This battle was to test not only the vessels but the new fif- 

 teen-inch ordnance, then for the first time brought into naval warfare, 

 and concerning which there had been, as well as with respect to the 

 vessels themselves, some variety of opinion. The conflict was so brief 

 and decisive that only one of the two monitor vessels present, though 

 not widely separated, and each eager for the fight, was able to par- 

 ticipate in the engagement. The Nahant, having no pilot, followed in 

 the wake of the Weeliawken, but before she could get into action the 

 contest was over. Such was the brevity of the fight that the Weeliaw- 

 ken, in about fifteen minutes, and with only five shots from her heavy 

 guns, overpowered and captured her formidable antagonist before the 

 Nalmnt, which was hastening to the work, could discharge a single 

 shot at the Atlanta. This remarkable result was an additional testi- 

 mony in favor of the monitor class of vessels for harbor defence and 

 coast service against any naval vessels that have been or are likely to 

 be constructed to visit our shores." 



Oilier trials of Iron-Clads in Action. But the most severe and practi- 

 cal test to which iron-clad vessels have as yet been subjected occurred 

 on the 7th of April, 1863, in the attack made by the U. S. fleet upon 

 the forts and earthworks commanding the harbor of Charleston, S. C. 

 On that occasion nine iron-clads, - - including seven vessels of the 

 JVlonitor pattern, the Ironsides, an iron-clad broadside steamer, and 

 the Keokuk, an iron-clad of a peculiar and novel construction, (see 

 Annual of Sci. Dis. 1863, p. 63), taking a position where they 

 were exposed, at comparatively short range, to the concentric and 

 cross-fire of two regularly-constructed forts, and some half-dozen earth- 

 works mounting heavy, and in part rifled ordnance, assailed Fort 

 Sumter, a fortress of modern construction and of great strength. The 

 result was, that after a contest of a little less than two hours, in which 

 the vessels engaged sustained the most fearful and concentrated fire on 

 record, the'forts and batteries using the heaviest and most improved 

 projectiles (including the Armstrong and Whitworth patterns), 

 the fleet was withdrawn. Upon the monitors and the Ironsides, al- 

 though all these vessels were struck repeatedly (the Ironsides alone some 

 ninety times) no person was killed, or even seriously injured ; while the 



