SUCCESS OF A "DUMMY" IRONCLAD. 139 



the important and the sublime, and the story, little known in England, is inserted here to 

 show how much may sometimes be done in warfare with insignificant means. 



The incident occurred in February, 1863. An old coal barge* adrift had been picked 

 up in the James River, and the brilliant idea seized some of Admiral Porter's men to convert 

 her into a " monitor/' The whole scheme was carried out in twelve hours. In fact, her 

 construction was hardly more solid than the " paper forts " built of canvas and boards by 

 the Chinese during our war with them, and which collapsed after a shot or two as readily 

 as would the "Rock of Gibraltar" or "Mount Vesuvius " at a firework display. The 

 barge was built up high with boards, while funnels and turrets constructed of pork-barrels 

 reared above, and two old canoes did duty for quarter-boats. A small house, taken from 

 the back yard of a planter's dwelling, stood for the pilot-house. Her furnaces were built of 

 mud or clay; they were only intended to make smoke, not steam. Then a good coat of 

 black paint or pitch; her furnaces were filled with pitch and other inflammable materials, 

 and she was ready. As soon as the "dummy" turned adrift on the Mississippi came in 

 range of the Vicksburg batteries, the alarmed garrison opened fire upon it. The black 

 monitor glided down the stream, belching out fire and smoke, but gave not a shot in 

 return. With amazement the Vicksburg soldiers found that they could not make the 

 slightest impression on the turreted monster. They did not know that it was full of water, 

 and had not a man on board ! In ominous and silent disdain she seemed to be making 

 for the Confederate ironclads; one of them, the Queen of the West, leaving part of her 

 crew ashore, incontinently fled, with all her steam power, making the best of her way to 

 the Red River. The Indianola, a vessel previously captured from the Northerners, was 

 lying aground, and not to be taken by this ruthless monster of a monitor, was ordered to 

 be blown up, which was accordingly done. Thus was this bloodless victory gained by 

 the dummy ironclad. It is not impossible that we may hear of similar tricks in future 

 warfare, as all is fair therein. 



The following experiences on board an American monitor are kindly sent to the writer 

 by a friend, formerly in the Royal Navy. 



" Great, indeed, was the excitement caused by the deeds of the Monitor and Merrimac 

 amongst the officers and men of Her Majesty's North Atlantic Squadron. Whether 

 dancing in Halifax, chasing French fishermen on the Newfoundland coast, or ' sunning' f 

 in St. George, there was always to be found some one, from captain to loblolly boy, with 

 a new story of the prowess of these formidable monsters of the shallows ! I write 

 ' shallows ' advisedly, for if the experience which I am about to narrate proves anything, it 

 will be that as a ' deep water ' or sea-going craft the Monitor is practically useless. 



" Notwithstanding a certain eagerness to behold a specimen of their floating batteries, 

 curiosity was not destined to be gratified until nearly two years after the close of the 

 American War, when the United States Government determined on sending a representative 

 the Miantonoma to make a tour of the world. The object of this resolution was to 

 prove that the American invention was not a mere floating battery, but was destined to 

 revolutionise the system of armour-plated ships. The Miantonoma was accompanied when 



* One account says a " ferry-boat," meaning probably one of the large steam ferry-boats common in America, 

 t "Sunning" means, in some parts of Canada, the act of promenading. 



