But in the hour of the nation's greatest need a champion suddenly appeared, in time to play the last scene in this great drama of sea warfare. The North, too, had been trying its hand at building ironclads. The most successful of them was the little _Monitor_, a flat-decked, low, turreted ironclad, armed with a couple of heavy guns. She was the first experiment of her kind, and her absolutely flat surface, nearly level with the water, her revolving turret, and her utter unlikeness to any pre-existing naval type, had made her an object of mirth among most practical seamen; but her inventor, Ericsson, never despaired of her. Under the command of a gallant naval officer, Captain Worden, she was sent South from New York, and though she almost foundered in a gale she managed to weather it, and reached the scene of the battle at Hampton Roads at the hour of the nation's sorest need. Early the following morning the _Merrimac_ again steamed forth to take up the work she had so well begun, and to destroy the Union fleet. She steered straight for the _Minnesota_; but when she was almost there, to her astonishment a strange-looking little craft advanced from the side of the big wooden frigate and boldly barred the _Merrimac_'s path. For a moment the Confederates could hardly believe their eyes. The _Monitor_ was tiny compared to their ship, for she was not one-fifth the size, and her queer construction and odd look made them look at their new foe with contempt; but the first shock of battle did away with this feeling. The _Merrimac_ turned on her foe her rifle guns, intending to blow her out of the water, but the shot glanced from the thick iron turret of the _Monitor_. Then the _Monitor_'s guns opened fire, and as the great balls struck the sides of the ram the plates started and her timbers gave. Had the _Monitor_ been such a vessel as those of her type produced later in the war the ram would have been sunk then and there; but as it was her shot was not quite heavy enough to pierce the iron walls. Around and around the two strange combatants hovered, their guns bellowing without cessation, while the men on the frigates and on shore watched the result with breathless interest. Neither the _Merrimac_ nor the _Monitor_ could dispose of its antagonist. The ram's guns could not damage the turret, and the _Monitor_ was able to dexterously avoid the stroke of the formidable prow. On the other hand, the shot of the _Monitor_ could not penetrate the _Merrimac_'s tough sides. Accordingly, fierce though the struggle was, and much though there was that hinged on it, it was not bloody in character. The _Merrimac_ could neither destroy nor evade the _Monitor_. She could not sink her when she tried to, and when she abandoned her and turned to attack one of the other wooden vessels the little turreted ship was thrown across her path, so that the fight had to be renewed. Both sides grew thoroughly exhausted, and finally the battle ceased by mutual consent.