force of the recoil being taken up by the friction of the carriage against the deck, but the gun recoiled sufficiently on discharge to permit of reloading; while, instead of the hinder truck, a contrivance attached to the end of a handspike was thrust under the gun carriage. There were, in addition, a number of smaller guns. [Illustration: THE “MERRIMAC” BEFORE CONVERSION.] [Illustration: THE “MERRIMAC” AS CONVERTED INTO AN IRONCLAD. _From Photographs supplied by the U.S. Navy Department._] The next that was heard of the _Merrimac_ was that when the Federals found it necessary to burn certain stores and ships which could not be removed beyond reach of the Confederates after the American War began, she was one of those set on fire and then sunk. The Confederates, being short of ships--indeed, they seem to have been short of everything except enthusiasm and a belief in their cause--raised her to see what could be done with her. All her upper works had been destroyed, and her hull somewhat damaged, but she was held to be sound enough to be worth fitting out afresh. Accordingly, to meet Commander Brooke’s design, she was cut down to the water-line, and given a superstructure in the shape of an ugly, squat rectangular deck-house with sloping sides, and was referred to afterwards by her northern opponents as a floating barn. The over-all deck length of this casemate was about 170 feet. Its sloping walls were framed of pine twenty inches thick, upon which oak planking four inches thick was laid, and outside this two sets of iron plates, formed by rolling out railway rails, were laid, the first horizontally and the outermost vertically. Both sets of plates were fastened on by bolts 1⅜ inches thick, passing through to the back of the timber. The sides sloped considerably, according to some writers 35 degrees, while others put the inclination at 45 degrees. The intention was that any shot striking her should only inflict a glancing blow and ricochet harmlessly. For the same reason the ends of the casemate were given a similar angle, but instead of being straight like the sides, were semi-circular, or almost so. The top of the structure was covered by an iron grating, which served the double purpose of permitting the ventilation of the interior and keeping out missiles. This grating measured about 20 feet by 120 feet. Her armament consisted of two 7-inch rifle guns mounted on pivots so that they could be fired through any of the ports in the sides of the casemate, a 6-inch rifled gun on either broadside, and three 9-inch smooth-bore Dahlgren guns. Altogether she had fourteen gunports. To add to her effectiveness, an iron ram was affixed to the bow. Her stern lay very little above the water, but the highest point of the bow was about two feet above the sea. Her conning tower, a cone three feet high and protected by four inches of armour, was placed beyond the forward end of the casemate. Her funnel was unprotected.