Just after she
passed Sandy Hook, orders recalling her were received there, fortunately
too late to be delivered. By such slight threads do the events of
history depend.
Meanwhile, Captain Worden was making such progress southward as he could
with his unwieldy and dangerous craft, which had been designed only for
the smooth waters of rivers and harbors and which was wholly unable to
cope with the boisterous Atlantic. There was a brisk wind, and the
vessel was soon in imminent danger of foundering. The waves broke over
her smoke-stack and poured down into her fires, so that steam could not
be kept up; the blowers which ventilated the ship would not work, and
she became filled with gas which rendered some of her crew unconscious.
Undoubtedly she would have gone to the bottom very shortly had not the
wind moderated. Even then, it was almost a miracle that she should win
through, but win through she did, and at four o'clock on the afternoon
of Saturday, March 8, as she was passing Cape Henry, Captain Worden
heard the distant booming of guns. As darkness came, he saw far ahead
the glare of the burning Congress.
About midnight, the little vessel crept up beside the Minnesota and
anchored. Her crew were completely exhausted. For fifty hours, they had
fought to keep their ship afloat, and on the morrow they must be
prepared to meet a formidable foe.
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