CHAPTER XXV
THE SINKING OF THE "ALBEMARLE"
Lieutenant Cushing Performs the Most Gallant Deed of the Civil War
NOW I am going to tell you about one of the most gallant deeds done in the navy during the whole Civil War. The man who did it was brave enough to be made admiral of the fleet, yet he did not get even a gold medal for his deed. But he is one of our heroes. It is all about an iron-clad steamer, and how it was sent to rest in the mud of a river-bottom.
The Confederate government had very bad luck with its iron-clads. It was busy enough building them, but they did not pay for their cost. The Merrimac did the most harm, but it soon went up in fire and smoke.
Then there were the Louisiana at New Orleans, and the Tennessee at Mobile. Farragut made short work of them. Two were built at Charleston which were of little use. The last of them all was the Albemarle, whose story I am about to tell.
The Roanoke River, in North Carolina, was a fine stream for blockade-runners. There was a long line of ships and gunboats outside, but in spite of them these swift runaways kept dashing in, loaded with goods for the people. Poor people! they needed them badly enough, for they had little of anything except what they could raise in their fields.
But the gunboats kept pushing farther into the river, and gave the Confederates no end of trouble. So they began to build an iron-clad which they thought could drive these wooden wasps away.
This iron-clad was a queer ship. Its keel was laid in a cornfield; its bolts and bars were hammered out in a blacksmith shop. Iron for its engines was picked up from the scrap heaps of the iron works at Richmond. Some of the Confederates laughed at it themselves; but they deserved great credit for building a ship under such difficulties as these.
It was finished in April, 1864, and nobody laughed at it when they saw it afloat. It was like the Merrimac in shape, and was covered with iron four inches thick. They named it the Albemarle.