In order to get up all the steam possible, the pork among the ship's store was flung into the blazing furnace under the boilers. The craft went through the water at a tremendous speed, and upon coming opposite the forts, Boggs fired his starboard battery and then ordered grape and canister to be used as rapidly as possible. Work had hardly begun when the Confederate gunboats appeared on every hand. With the same coolness that he had shown when driven ashore in Mexico, the command was given for the guns to be fired "on both sides." Indeed, there were so many targets that it would have been about as difficult to miss as to hit one. [Illustration: ATTACK ON ROANOKE ISLAND--LANDING OF THE TROOPS.] The _Varuna_ did terrific work, her gunners displaying fine markmanship. The formidable craft _Governor Moore_ had detected her in the early morning light, and steaming after her, fired a shot when only a hundred yards away, but missed. The _Varuna_ replied, killing and wounding men on the _Governor Moore_ at every shot. One of the enemy's shot, however, raked the _Varuna_, killing four men and wounding nine. Another struck the _Varuna's_ pivot gun and killed and wounded a number more. Then the _Governor Moore_ rammed the _Varuna_ twice in quick succession. But while the Confederate was doing so, Boggs planted three 8-inch shells into his antagonist, which set her on fire and compelled her to drop out of action. Her loss had been heavy and her engines were so battered that her commander ran her ashore, where she was burned to the water's edge. Out of the misty light burst the _Stonewall Jackson_ and rammed the _Varuna_ on the port side, repeating the blow with a viciousness that stove in the vessel below the water line; but the _Varuna_ swung the ram ahead until her own broadside guns bore, when she planted several 5-inch shells into the _Stonewall Jackson_, which set her on fire and caused her to drift ashore. But the _Varuna_ had been mortally hurt and was sinking fast. To quote the words of Commodore Boggs: "In fifteen minutes from the time the _Varuna_ was struck by the _Stonewall Jackson_, she was on the bottom, with only her topgallant forecastle out of the water." But those were exceedingly lively minutes for the _Varuna_ and the other craft in her neighborhood. Commander Boggs turned her prow toward shore and crowded all steam, firing his guns as the water rose about the trucks. When the last shell left the side of the sinking vessel the current had reached the mouth of the piece, and some of it was blown out like mist with the shrieking missile. The moment the bow of the _Varuna_ struck the bank a chain cable was fastened around the trunk of a tree, so as to prevent her from sliding into deep water as she went down and taking the wounded and dead with her. This was a precaution which would not have occurred to every man in the situation of Commander Boggs.