The wooden gunboats _Miami_ and _Southfield_ offered just the sort of targets the monster fancied.

Under a full head of steam, the _Albemarle_ rammed her iron beak clean into the fire room of the _Southfield_.

The latter was skewered upon the projection and began slowly sinking.

The snout was so entangled with the _Southfield_ that the victim could not be shaken off, and as she sank she carried her foe with her.

The bow of the ironclad dipped below the surface, and a most extraordinary and inglorious end seemed inevitable, when the _Southfield_ touched bottom, rolled over and freed itself from the bow of the ram, which popped up again.
Meanwhile the _Miami_ was pounding the iron hide of the monster, which shed the missiles as the _Merrimac_ shed the broadsides from the _Cumberland_ and _Congress_.