Beyond the Book
The USS
Merrimack (scuttled by
the Union forces when they
abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard
at Portsmouth, VA, and renamed
the Virginia by the
Confederate forces who
subsequently raised her) and the
Monitor (built in about
90 days by John Ericsson) fought the
first engagement between
ironclad ships, in March 1862.
If you can't remember the
outcome I'm not going to tell
you here as it would be a bit of
a plot spoiler! However, I will tell you that the Monitor sank in heavy seas in...













