“The broadside of the _Germantown_, which was all ready for sea and only waiting a crew, would have saved the navy yard against attack, overawed Norfolk and Portsmouth, and prevented the channel from being obstructed by the Confederates.” So says Porter. Elsewhere he adds, that the “five heavy guns on a side on board the _Pennsylvania_” with fifty good seamen on board, “could have bid defiance to 5,000 Confederates in arms and held Norfolk and Portsmouth.” Nevertheless, “after the arrival of the _Pawnee_ had made the yard doubly secure, the shells were drawn from the _Pennsylvania’s_ guns, and the guns spiked.” Every other gun in the yard, afloat and ashore, except 200, was spiked. Men with sledge-hammers ran about the yard, vainly trying to knock the trunnions from the guns in store. Others soaked the decks of the ships and the buildings with tar and turpentine. Others laid a mine in the dry dock--put twenty-six barrels (2,600 pounds) of powder there. Only the _Pawnee_ and the _Cumberland_, which were full-manned, escaped the work of the destroyers. “It was a beautiful starlight night, April 20th, when all the preparations were completed. The people of Norfolk and Portsmouth were wrapped in slumber, little dreaming that in a few hours the ships and public works which were so essential to the prosperity of the community would be a mass of ruins, and hundreds of people would be without employment and without food for their families. The _Pawnee_ had towed the _Cumberland_ out of the reach of the fire, and laid at anchor to receive on board those who were to fire the public property. Commodore McCauley had gone to bed that night, worn out with excitement and anxiety, under the impression that the force that had arrived at Norfolk was for the purpose of holding the yard and relieving him of responsibility, and when he was called at midnight and informed that the torch would be applied to everything, he could hardly realize the situation, and was chagrined and mortified at the idea of abandoning his post without any attempt to defend it. “At 2.30 A.M., April 21st, a rocket from the _Pawnee_ gave the signal; the work of destruction commenced with the _Merrimac_, and in ten minutes she was one vast sheet of flame. In quick succession the trains to the other ships and buildings were ignited and the surrounding country brilliantly illuminated.” [Illustration: The Old _New Hampshire_ at the Norfolk Navy Yard. _From a photograph by Cook._]