The _Merrimac_ had left Norfolk for a trial trip, but the crew had slushed her walls to make the Yankee shells slip off, and their enthusiasm made them determine to give her such a trial as no new-idea ship ever had either before or since. Running across to Newport News, the _Merrimac_ headed for the _Cumberland_, that lay beyond the point. The government crews were at their quarters, and while yet the _Merrimac_ was three-quarters of a mile away, the _Cumberland’s_ ten-inch pivot began to talk. Then the frigate _Congress_ opened fire. The _Merrimac_ passed her broadside to broadside, for the _Congress_ swung head to the east with the young flood-tide. It was an experienced crew on the _Congress_, and her shot rattled and burst against the _Merrimac’s_ side--rattled and burst “like peas from a pea-shooter.” They made the slush there sizzle and smoke, but they did no damage whatever. As the _Merrimac_ passed the _Congress_, however, and opened fire with her broadside, the shot struck home, carrying death on every side. One broadside only, and then she was gone. She was going to begin on the _Cumberland_. Lieut. George U. Morris was in command of the _Cumberland_, for Capt. William Radford was away on other duty. But Morris was equal to the emergency. As the _Merrimac_ drew near, the _Cumberland’s_ guns were loaded with solid shot and the heaviest service charge of powder. The broadside guns were carefully aimed, and almost every shot struck the moving target--struck it and bounded clear or burst into harmless fragments. There was nothing they could do to impede the coming monster. And then, when the _Merrimac_ was within a few yards, her long bow rifle blazed forth. It was aimed by Lieut. Charles Simms, and it killed and wounded “most of the crew of the after pivot gun of the _Cumberland_.” The _Cumberland_ returned the shot with a broadside, but the _Merrimac_ was now upon her; the long bow, that was just awash, slid through the water and into the side of the old sloop just under the fore rigging. The crash of the timbers was heard above the roar of the guns. The _Cumberland_ shivered and heeled slightly to the blow, while the _Merrimac_ hung for a moment in the wound she had made, and then backed off, firing every gun that would bear, while the water went roaring into the _Cumberland_ through the hole where the ram had struck. Heading to the west, the _Merrimac_ steamed slowly away astern of the wounded ship, and then turned to come back again. While the _Merrimac_ turned she raked the _Cumberland_ first with the big stern pivot and then with the broadside guns, killing and wounding many, and then ranging up beside her, hailed and demanded that she surrender. [Illustration: The Sinking of the _Cumberland_ by the Ironclad _Merrimac_. _From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]