The Blockade Runner — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

sa THE BLOCKADE RUNNER. The waters roared and foamed under the boats’ keels, and the near shore shook under the crash of the gigantic artillery. Would the conflict never end ? Men wondered while they watched and stood awe stricken on the ramparts of Fortress Monroe. Captain Buchanan, of the Merrimac, was a man of nerve. Had he’ resolved to conquer or die on the battlefield of his own choosing ? On the other band. Commander Worden was prey: ing himself a hero. Two braver men had never met before in a battle on the wave. At last the Merrimac pulled off, but sullenly, like a wolf showing his teeth, and growling. She had given up the fight, thus acknowledging that in the Monitor she had found a superior whom she could not destroy. A cheer went up from a thousand throats. The Federals felt that a great victory had been gained, even if the Merrimac had not been sent to the pottom of the sea. The guns of Sewall’s Point received the Confederate ram under their protection, gunboats came to her aid, ana she steamed back to Norfolk. The Monitor steamed back to the fort, where those who had witnessed the fight had an opportunity of inspecting her. What did they see? An iron-covered vessel, conical in shape, one hun- dred and seventy-four feet long, forty-one feet wide, surmounted by a revolving turret, armed with two eleven-inch columbiads. . Comichbooksico 5}