The Blockade Runner — page 78: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BLOCKADE RUNNER. “9 The Minnesota joined in the battle, pelting the Mer- yimac with her heaviest shot, and adding greatly to the appalling horror of the scene. A cloud of smoke hovered over the two iron ships— a cloud which the spectators on the walls of the fort and elsewhere were afraid to see lift, lest the lifting should reveal the Monitor at the mercy of her foe. The pall rose at last, and the stars and stripes were seen still floating over the little ship, from whose tur- ret the terrible guns were still belching forth great elobes of iron! Maddened at the constant firing of the Minnesota, the Merrimac turned suddenly upon her. She rushed forward with her steel prow, for the purpose of dealing a stroke like that which had finished the Cumberland. The Monitor saw the steamer’s peril, and deliberately threw herself in the enemy’s path. Her guns were fired fast and furious into the foe. The Merrimac reeled before the awful discharges, and then resolved to bring the combat to an end. She turned her prow upon the Monitor, and witha full head of steam on, drove straight at her. It was an anxious, breathless moment. The next minute the two monsters collided! The Merrimac’s prow glided up on her adversary’s ‘sheathed deck, careening her and exposing her own hull under the iron casing, an accident most unfor- tunate. ) Quick as a flash, the Monitor seized the opportunity thus presented, and sent a ponderous shot under the enemy’s sheathing, driving her off disabled. Still the fight went on, iron against iron, steel com- hating steel! ; CoOMmicoookssE@