"The enemy in no amiable mood poured down upon the bubbling water a hailstorm of rifle and pistol shots from the deck of the 'Ironsides,' and from the nearest monitor. Sometimes they struck very close to my head, but swimming for life I soon disappeared from sight and found myself alone in the water. I hoped that with the assistance of the flood tide I might be able to reach Fort Sumter, but a north wind was against me, and after I had been in the water more than an hour I became numb with cold and was nearly exhausted. Just then the boat of a transport schooner picked me up and found to their surprise that they had captured a 'rebel.' I was handed over next morning to the mercy of Admiral Dahlgren, who ordered me to be put in irons, and if obstreperous, in double irons. When on the flagship I learned that my fireman had clung to her rudder chains and been taken on board. "Engineer Toombs started to swim towards the 'Monitor,' with the intention of catching her chains, but changed his mind when he saw that the 'David' was afloat, and had drifted away from the frigate. Swimming to her he found Pilot Cannon, who not being able to swim, when the fires were extinguished jumped overboard and clung to the unexposed side of the 'David.' After drifting about a quarter of a mile he got back on board and seeing something in the water he hailed and heard, to his surprise, a reply from Toombs, who soon got on board. Finding the boat uninjured, though a bull's eye canteen afforded a mark to the Federal cannoneer, they fixed the engine, started up the fires, got up steam and started back to Charleston, reaching the Atlantic dock about midnight."