However, on March 31st, 250 seamen were ordered from the New York Navy Yard to Norfolk, and fifty seamen were transferred to the revenue cutter _Harriet Lane_, which was sent to Norfolk. “On April 11th Commander James Alden was ordered to take command of the _Merrimac_ and Chief Engineer Isherwood was sent to Norfolk to get the ship’s engines in working order.” “On the 14th the work was commenced, and on the 17th the engines were in working order--so much for the commandant’s assertion that it would take a month to get the ship ready to move.” These quotations are from Admiral Porter’s “Naval History of the Civil War.” But he does not say McCauley was disloyal. McCauley had merely believed the wilful lies of those under him. [Illustration: A View of the Norfolk Navy Yard. _From a photograph by Cook._] It is cheering to read that “the disloyalty did not at that time extend to the mechanics,” and that “they worked day and night” to get the ship ready. “Then forty-four firemen and coal heavers volunteered for the service of taking the _Merrimac_ out.” At this Commodore McCauley, mindful of his orders to do nothing to excite the suspicions of hostile intent, said “that next morning would be time enough.” Next morning, there being a good head of steam on, word was again sent that she was ready, but he replied that he had decided not to send her out. “He gave as a reason the obstructions that had been placed in the channel, and when the anxious Alden told him they could clear away the obstructions he merely ordered the fires drawn. He had become utterly demoralized, and his demoralization was infectious.” At about this time came Captain Paulding in the _Pawnee_ from Washington with a regiment of Massachusetts volunteers. His instructions were to “save what he could and act as he thought proper.” When he arrived the Southern officers had just resigned, and the mechanics, being citizens of Virginia, had been induced to leave the yard in a body. It was reported that thousands of Virginia militia were coming to reinforce the Confederates gathering about the yard. The report was due to a trick of William Mahone, afterwards a noted practical politician of the State. He was president of the Norfolk & Petersburg Railroad, and ran empty cars up the line, loaded on a mob sent there for the purpose, and brought them back “with every man yelling with all his might.” This was on April 19, 1861. The next day Confederate troops did arrive, and the demoralization in the yard was completed. It was the most disgraceful panic in the history of the nation, for it was a panic that came on when not a gun had been fired, and the only overt acts of war were the robbing of a government powder magazine and the sinking of a few hulks (Mahone did this also), so that the government officers would think the channel was being obstructed.