Turning her frightful front toward the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ swept down upon her in grim and awful majesty.

The _Cumberland_ let fly with her terrific broadsides, which were powerful enough to sink the largest ship afloat, but the tons of metal hurled with inconceivable force skipped off the greased sides of the iron roof and scooted away for hundreds of yards through the startled air.
The prodigious broadsides were launched again and again, but produced no more effect than so many paper wads from a popgun.

The iron prow of the _Merrimac_ crashed through the wooden walls of the _Cumberland_ as if they were cardboard, and, while her crew were still heroically working their guns, the _Cumberland_ went down, with the red flag, meaning "no surrender," flying from her peak.

Lieutenant Morris succeeded in saving himself, but 121 were lost out of the crew of 376.
Having destroyed the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ now made for the _Congress_, which had been vainly pelting her with her broadsides.

The _Congress_ was aground and so completely at the mercy of the _Merrimac_, which raked her fore and aft, that every man would have been killed had not the sign of surrender been displayed.