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1862] Other ironclad encounters. 563 but the Merrimac had been prevented from achieving her purpose of destroying the wooden ships. It was on the whole judicious of the Northern officers not to risk unnecessarily the only ironclad which the North then possessed; and the Merrimac was not pursued. A month later she came out again, but this time the Monitor did not show any anxiety to fight, though a number of barges were carried off from her neighbourhood by the Confederate gun-boats accompanying the Southern ironclad. This sally was the more dangerous in that it threatened the maritime communications of McClellan's army, which was then assembling at Fort Monroe. Perhaps it was the greatness of this danger that kept the Monitor back; and, as the commander of the Merrimac also had orders to run no risks, the two ships only watched each other. In May the Confederates were compelled to destroy their ironclad, as the army of McClellan was threatening Norfolk ; and the Monitor did not survive her antagonist for many months. In December, 1862, she foundered off Hatteras, taking down with her part of her crew. But her work was done ; and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that she saved the Union by preventing the South from achieving a naval victory which would have resounded through the two hemispheres, would have effectually broken the blockade, if only for a time, and, perhaps, would even have secured intervention. The action is of historic importance as the first battle fought between armoured vessels, though seven years before, at Kinburn in the course of the Crimean War, armoured ships had been pitted against forts with striking success. On January 31, 1863, an attempt was made by two small Confederate ironclads to break the blockade off Charleston, but no decisive success was gained, though two of the blockaders were much damaged. Armoured vessels were sent by the Northern government to co-operate in the blockade, with the result that the Southerners were not able thenceforth to do more than deliver torpedo attacks on the vessels watching the port. At Savannah, however, they built a really for- midable armourclad, the Atlanta ; and two monitors had to be detached from Charleston to destroy her. The crew of the Atlanta was made up of untrained men, which may account for her indifferent performance. On June 17, 1863, she steamed out and was instantly attacked by the monitor Weehawken. This vessel fired but five rounds in fifteen minutes, and at the fifth the Atlanta hauled down her flag, having been struck by four shots, all of which had done great damage. In April, 1864, the Albemarle, another ironclad of similar pattern to the Atlanta, was completed for service on the North Carolina Sounds, with the object of driving the Union gun-boats from these waters, where they interfered with trade and penetrated to the very heart of the State. The town of Plymouth had been occupied by a Northern force ; and it was one of the first objects of the Albemarle, when ready, to aid in a joint attack upon the garrison of this place. On April 19, with men en. xvii. 36 2