Iron Ships Ironclads. 51 



with very thick sides so as to resist cannon- 

 balls. 



1 8. The Devastation, an English vessel of this class, has 

 on her sides twelve inches of iron, backed by eighteen 

 inches of wood, and the Dictator, an American vessel, 

 has six inches of iron, backed by forty-two inches of wood, 

 making a very formidable barrier. 



The Ironclad " Merrimac." 



19. Two of the most celebrated ironclad 

 vessels of war were the Merrimac (or Virgi- 

 nia) and the Monitor. 



20. The former, a Confederate war-vessel, with a slop- 

 ing roof of railroad iron, attacked and destroyed the 

 Union war-vessels (not ironclad) Cumberland and Con- 

 gress, whose heavy cannon-balls glanced harmlessly off. 

 Nothing then seemed easier than to destroy all the other 

 Union vessels it could reach ; but the little ironclad Moni- 

 tor, less than one-fifth the weight of the Merrimac, arrived 

 from New York just in the nick of time. The two iron- 

 clads went at each other, and for several hours they fought 

 furiously. Five times the Merrimac tried to run down 

 and sink her brave little antagonist; broadside after 

 broadside was hurled at it, but its hull, its deck, and its 



