The little _Monitor_ sank down under the _Merrimac_ till the water washed across her deck; then she slid lightly out and rose up all right again, while the _Merrimac_ started a leak in its own bow. At the same moment one of the _Monitor's_ great guns was fired and the ball struck the _Merrimac_, breaking the iron plates and bulging in the thick wood backing. Thus for hour after hour the fight went on. For six hours the iron ships struggled and fought, but neither ship was much the worse, while nobody was badly hurt. The end of the fight came in this way: There was a little pilot-house on the deck of the _Monitor_, with a slot in its side from which Captain Worden watched what was going on, so that he could give orders to his men. Up against this there came a shell that filled the face and eyes of the captain with grains of powder and splinters of iron, and flung him down blind and helpless. Blood poured from every pore of his face. The same shot knocked an iron plate from the top of the pilot-house and let in the daylight in a flood. When the light came pouring in Captain Worden, with his blinded eyes, thought something very serious had happened, and gave orders for the _Monitor_ to draw off to see what damage was done. Before she came back the _Merrimac_ was far away. She was leaking badly and her officers thought it about time to steam away for home. That was the end of the great battle. Neither side had won the victory, but it was a famous fight for all that. For it was the first battle of iron-clad ships in the history of the world. Since then no great warship has been built without iron sides. Only small vessels are now made all of wood. That was the first and last battle of the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_. For a long time they watched each other like two bull-dogs ready for a fight. But neither came to blows. Then, two months after the great battle, the _Merrimac_ was set on fire and blown up. The Union forces were getting near Norfolk and her officers were afraid she would be taken, so they did what the Union officers had done before. The _Monitor_ had done her work well, but her time also soon came. Ten months after the great battle she was sent out to sea, and there she went to the bottom in a gale. Such was the fate of the pioneer iron-clads. But they had fought a mighty fight, and had taught the nations of the world a lesson they would not soon forget. In that grim deed between the first two iron-clad ships a revolution took place in naval war. The great frigates, with their long rows of guns, were soon to be of little more use than floating logs. More than forty years have passed since then, and now all the great war-vessels are clad in armor of the hardest steel. CHAPTER XXIII COMMODORE FARRAGUT WINS RENOWN THE HERO OF MOBILE BAY LASHES HIMSELF TO THE MAST