The American Monitors do not seem to have justified Mr.
Ericsson's predictions. They were to have swept all foreign navies out of the Gulf of Mexico, but the official reports show that as yet the active force of rifled shot has been stronger than the passive strength' of armour-plating. Captain Drayton, of the Passaic, says that two heavy shots bulged in the plates and beams of the turret-house, and made the 11-inch gun useless, while a third rifle-shot "struck the upper edge of the turret, broke all of its eleven plates, and then glancing upwards struck the pilot-house with such force as to send it over, open the plates, and squeeze out the top, exposing the inside of the pilot-house." The Weehawken had her plates smashed till they could be picked off with the hand, and the wood was exposed ; the Patapsco " received injuries which, if multiplied, would disable her ;" the Nantuck had her port-stopper jammed so that her great gun could not be worked ; and the Nahant had her plates stripped from the wood, her bolts were all started, and the pilot-house was so much damaged that " four more shots would have demolished it."
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