Lieutenant Worden, the Commander of the _Monitor_, on arriving at Fort Monroe was instructed to lie alongside the _Minnesota_, to guard her in case of a night attack. At eleven o’clock she set out, and her arrival was hailed with delight by the men on board the frigate, though some shook their heads at the strange unshapely toy which a private individual had constructed to save the Federal fleet. But few slept that night. The odds against the _Monitor_ seemed too great. She mounted but two guns, while the _Merrimac_ carried ten. Sunday morning broke sunny and beautiful, and the sea was peaceful and calm. Near Sewell’s Point, opposite Hampton Roads, three vessels were at anchor, one of them the _Merrimac_. About nine o’clock glasses showed a stir amongst them, and instantly the _Monitor_ awoke to life and action, closing her iron hatches and putting on the dead-light covers. The _Monitor_, like a great girdle-cake, only stood 2 feet out of the water; her smooth surface was broken only by the turret and pilot-house. Then they saw the _Merrimac_ coming, looking like a submerged house, with roof only out of the water. After her came the _Jamestown_ and _Yorktown_, and a fleet of tug-boats crowded with ladies and gentlemen from Norfolk eager to see the fun. The _Merrimac_, entirely unconscious of the new enemy she had to encounter, steamed slowly along and fired upon the _Minnesota_, which was still aground. The _Minnesota_ replied with a broadside and the usual result; but the _Monitor_ steamed out from behind and boldly advanced to meet her antagonist, and when at a distance of half a mile Lieutenant Worden from the pilot-house gave the order to fire. The ball, weighing 170 pounds, rattled against the mailed side of the _Merrimac_. She staggered under the force of the concussion, and at once seemed to realize that in this floating turret she had no mean antagonist. At the range of only a few yards she poured in a terrible broadside. To her disgust, the shots seemed to have glided off and done no harm. Then the two vessels closed and poured a hail of heavy metal upon each other. The _Monitor_ being the quicker, would circle round the _Merrimac_, while the turret, turning with ease, always presented the guns to the foe. Worden in his pilot-house could speak through tubes to Lieutenant Green, who commanded the gunners in the tower. Once Green trained his guns on the _Merrimac’s_ water-line, and the shot penetrated. “Splendid, sir! splendid!” roared Worden. “You have made the iron fly.” But the spectators who lined the ramparts of Fort Monroe could not see what was happening for the clouds of smoke, and they stood, silent and wretched, almost afraid to look.