The _Merrimac_ remained unmolested until government operations ashore compelled the Confederates to evacuate Norfolk and the battery at Sewell’s Point. Tattnall wished to retreat with the _Merrimac_ up the James River, but his pilots said it could not be done, and accordingly, on the night of May 10, 1862, he ran her ashore “in the bight of Craney Island,” not far from where he had, as a midshipman in his teens, led the sortie from the little fort built there to keep the British from Norfolk--led the sortie that drove the boastful Pechell’s men helter-skelter back to their ships. On Craney Island he fired the _Merrimac_ and retreated ashore, leaving her to blow up on the morning of the 11th at 5 o’clock. The _Monitor_ lasted a few months longer. She was ordered to Beaufort, North Carolina, in tow of the _Rhode Island_, and sailed from Hampton Roads on the afternoon of December 29, 1862. The _Passaic_, in tow of the _State of Georgia_, went along. On the morning of January 2d a long swell set in with a wind that grew to a gale, and just before midnight she foundered, although not until all but sixteen of her crew were saved. [Illustration: Destruction of the _Merrimac_ off Craney Island. _From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._] If the reader would know the effect of this fight on the navies of the world, let him compare the best ships afloat in 1860--the old-style ships with lofty masts and swelling canvas--with the latest designs of battle-ships. For the old frigates all disappeared, one may say, when the _Cumberland_ went, and the turreted floating fort has followed in the wake of the _Monitor_. CHAPTER XI WITH THE MISSISSIPPI GUNBOATS CREATING A FLEET FOR THE OPENING OF THE WATER ROUTE ACROSS THE CONFEDERACY--IRONCLADS THAT WERE NOT SHOT-PROOF, BUT FAIRLY EFFICIENT NEVERTHELESS--GUNS THAT BURST AND BOILERS THAT WERE SEARCHED BY SHOT FROM THE ENEMY--WHEN GRANT RETREATED AND WAS COVERED BY A GUNBOAT--FIRST VIEW OF TORPEDOES--CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY--A DISASTROUS ATTACK ON FORT DONELSON--WHEN WALKE BRAVED THE BATTERIES AT ISLAND NO. 10--THE CONFEDERATE DEFENCE SQUADRON AT FORT PILLOW--THE FIRST BATTLE OF STEAM RAMS--FRIGHTFUL EFFECTS OF BURSTED BOILERS--IN THE WHITE RIVER--FARRAGUT APPEARS.