Her speed was not more than five knots an hour and she steered so badly
the _Beaufort_ was compelled to pull her into the main current of the
channel more than once.
The Federal squadron lay off Newport News, the _Congress_ and the
_Cumberland_ well out in the stream, the _Minnesota_, _Roanoke_ and _St.
Lawrence_ further down toward Fortress Monroe. The _Congress_,
_Cumberland_ and _St. Lawrence_ mounted one hundred and twenty-four
guns, twenty-two of them of nine-inch caliber. Their crews aggregated
more than a thousand men.
The new crack steam frigates _Minnesota_ and _Roanoke_ had crews of six
hundred men each and carried more than eighty guns of nine and
eleven-inch caliber. That any single craft afloat would dare attack such
a squadron was preposterous.
It was one o'clock before the strange black looking object swung into
the channel and turned her nose up stream toward Newport News.
The crews of the _Congress_ and the _Cumberland_ were lounging on deck
enjoying the balmy spring air. It was wash day and the clothes were
fluttering in the breeze.
They couldn't make out the foolish-looking thing at first. It looked
like the top of a long-hipped roof house that had been sawed off at the
eaves and pushed into the water.
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