[FreeAtlanta]

After a short exchange, the Virginia should have ignored the little pest and gone about her business of wrecking the Northern Aggressors.

[GonzoGOP]

After a short exchange, the Virginia should have ignored the little pest and gone about her business of wrecking the Northern Aggressors.

Kinda hard to ignore a faster, considerably more maneuverable ship that can maneuver freely in shallow waters while you are restricted to a narrow channel. Besides with the exception of Minnesota and the tug assisting her all the other Union ships were under the guns of Fort Monroe. Those big Columbiads would have hammered Virginia just as hard as the 11" guns of Monitor, but they weren't restricted to half charges.

Virginia was not a very good ship. She was slow painfully slow, drew too much water. She had been in Norfolk because her engines had broken down and sitting on the bottom of the Elizabeth river hadn't helped them any. Her helm was slow to answer and her steering gear was unarmored. Virginia's coal supply was limited and she would have been helpless in any sort of a sea. And her much vaunted armor was actually thin by later war standards.

When you compare her to ships built only a year later like CSS Atlanta and CSS Tennessee II it is obvious that she and her crew did very well considering what they had to work with. And had the Northern Aggressors been just a bit more aggressive they might have had her that day.

[Tallguy]

After a short exchange, the Virginia should have ignored the little pest and gone about her business of wrecking the Northern Aggressors.

I think CSS Virginia briefly grounded during the duel with Monitor & overheated her boilers attempting to get enough power to back off. Not sure how much powder & shot had been expended at that point.