Standing in the little pilot-house, Captain Worden peered through the chinks left for eye-holes between the iron logs of which it was built. He saw that the shot first fired against the broad wall of the _Merrimac_ bounded away without doing material harm, so he lessened the range--laid the _Monitor_ so close beside her that an active man might have leaped from ship to ship. Still the _Monitor’s_ shot failed to penetrate, and he then went cruising to and fro, seeking a vulnerable point, but finding none, although a single well-directed shot would have sunk the _Merrimac_ out of sight. Failing in this, Worden made a dash at the stern of the _Merrimac_, hoping to disable her rudder or screw. He missed the mark, it is said, by the narrow margin of two feet. Then the speaking-tube leading to the turret broke, and the purser and the surgeon were stationed to pass the orders of the captain. The interior of the turret became filled with smoke, and the walls and deck were covered with the grime of battle. A painted mark which had been laid to enable the turret’s crew to tell which side was starboard and which port, was obliterated. The turret’s crew were shut in and unable to learn, save with great difficulty, the bearing of the enemy. The machinery that turned the turret was not quite equal to the work; “it was hard to start and harder to stop when once agoing.” Greene was obliged to fire from a moving turret, and the intervals between shots were lengthened. [Illustration: In the _Monitors_ Turret.] But over on the _Merrimac_ matters were in quite as bad a condition. The “ship was working worse and worse. The smoke-stack was carried away, and the steam went down. Twice she grounded, while the _Monitor_, having but a little more than half her draft, played around her.” And even the shot from the big rifles made no impression on the turret of the _Monitor_. Lieutenant Jones, on going to one part of the gun-deck, found the men standing idle. “‘Why are you not firing?’ he said to the lieutenant in charge. “‘Why, our powder is very precious,’ replied the lieutenant, ‘and after two hours I find that I can do her about as much damage by snapping my thumb at her every two and a half minutes.’” So says Wood, already quoted. At this, Jones determined to ram the _Monitor_, and for an hour manœuvred for a position before he was able to order, “Go ahead full speed!” Even then he failed because the watchful Worden gave the handy little _Monitor_ a turn, and the _Merrimac_ struck a glancing blow that did not hurt the _Monitor_, but it opened up her own bow, making an “alarming leak.” The leak was temporarily plugged, but it had its effect on the fortunes of the day, later on.