Nevertheless, they labored in vain. Fire as swiftly as they might and as accurately as they could, the majestic column of steamers passed in with the tide, unimpeded, until well within the harbor, when the longer column turned slowly around and came back, heading to pass this time within 600 yards instead of 800 as before. Sweeping out to sea, they came back again, passing once more at the shorter and more deadly range, and then a number of them came to anchor at a distance of 1,200 yards from the fort, and began a steady fire at a sure range, while “the _Vandalia_, in tow of the _Isaac Smith_ by a long hawser, swept in long, graceful, but inconvenient curves past and among these vessels. The _Unadilla_, whose machinery was disabled, pursued her eccentric orbit, her commanding officer hailing and requesting other vessels to get out of the way, as he ‘could not stop.’ As he swept by, again and again the droll song of the man with the cork leg that would not let him tarry was brought to mind.” So says Ammen. But while the _Unadilla_ amused the government forces she was not amusing the Confederates, for she kept her batteries working as relentlessly as her machinery worked. [Illustration: Fort Walker. _Susquehanna._ _Wabash._ _Bienville._ _Ottawa._ _Curlew._ _Seneca._ Fort Beauregard. Bombardment of Port Royal, S. C. _From an engraving by Ridgeway of a drawing by Parsons._] And then came the steamer _Pocahontas_, under Capt. Percival Drayton, a Southern-born naval officer whose regard for his oath had prevented his deserting the flag. The _Pocahontas_ had been delayed at sea by the great gale, but although she arrived too late to join in the procession, she ran in close to the beach southeast of the fort, and, stopping there, opened an enfilading fire. There was a single thirty-two-pounder on this flank of the fort, and Gen. Thomas Drayton, commanding the fort, had it trained on the _Pocahontas_. General Drayton on shore and Captain Drayton afloat, brothers, were firing on each other. But the gun ashore was knocked to pieces by a shot from the ship, and thereafter the fire of the _Pocahontas_ began to drive the Confederates from their guns, for there were no traverses between the guns to protect the men from an enfilading fire.