Word was sent to Lincoln that the Monitor was afloat and he, knowing that the Merrimac was almost ready, ordered it to proceed immediately to Hampton Roads. Ericsson, however, responded that this was impossible, that the vessel was intended only for harbor defense and would not last in a sea, as she was merely an iron deck set on a scow with an overhang at each end of twenty-five feet, and that the force of the waves under this overhang would lift the upper works from the hull. He had not followed Dr. Timby’s plans as to the hull, which would have saved the vessel in the storm off Hatteras referred to below. The only excuse for the twenty-five foot overhang that can be thought of now is that the short hull was sufficient to float the structure and cost less than a longer hull. The President, however, sent peremptory orders that the Monitor should go, and we all know the result. TALE OF THE MERRIMAC’S ENGINEER. Some years after the close of the war Dr. Weeks met the engineer of the Merrimac in Dakota, and as the conversation drifted to the days that had been, the engineer told how the Southerners were highly elated at the first success of the Merrimac, and felt that nothing could stop them, and when they came out of the James river on the morning that the Monitor arrived, the captain was annoyed to see what he supposed was a raft lying between him and his intended prey, the Minnesota, and not realizing what it was or that it could offer resistance, ordered full speed ahead, expecting to ram and destroy the obstruction. “You can imagine our amazement”, said the engineer, “at the shock of the impact, which threw us to the deck; it was like running on a ledge of rock. The iron prow of the Merrimac, which was made for ramming, was bent and useless, and had we not struck a slanting blow the result to the Merrimac would have been serious. “But what finally overwhelmed us were the enormous balls, eleven inches in diameter, which came thundering at our railroaded sides until they began to make breaches. Finally one of these ripped through us from stem to stern, killing or wounding seven or more, upsetting gun carriages and causing terrible devastation. Then it was that we realized that destruction awaited us unless we could escape.” DR. WEEKS TRANSFERRED TO THE MONITOR.