Benjamin Franklin Isherwood, Naval Engineer. Edward William Sloan III
yard. Through normal departmental correspondence, Benjamin Isherwood was aware of the steamer’s condition, but he was also aware of the situation in and around the yard. Realizing the danger of the Merrimack in southern hands, Isherwood went to see Welles about saving the ship.21
The extent of Isherwood’s influence on Welles at this point cannot be determined, but the Engineer in Chief was undeniably insistent in stressing the importance of the Merrimack, and he “repeatedly urged” the Secretary to rescue the steamer. By April 10, Welles decided to remove the Merrimack to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and ordered her preparation for this trip “with the utmost despatch.” The reply from Norfolk threw Welles into consternation. The engine repairs on the Merrimack would take at least four weeks; the vessel was helpless until the repairs were done. Isherwood, however, flatly rejected this estimate as being far too pessimistic. The work, he believed, could be done in a week; the four-week estimate was an excuse to keep the Merrimack in reach of southern sympathizers. The only recourse, Welles realized, was to send Isherwood himself to Norfolk to supervise the repairs.22
On April 12, Isherwood set out for Norfolk, together with Commander James Alden, who would sail the Merrimack to Philadelphia once she was ready for sea. Arriving in Portsmouth, Virginia, on the fourteenth, Isherwood located Chief Engineer Danby, and the two went to Commodore McCauley’s office to present the old man with orders from Welles requesting his co-operation with Isherwood’s work. McCauley readily consented, and the two engineers then boarded the Merrimack to examine the task before them. “The engines,” Isherwood recalled, “were in a wretched state.” The engine braces had been removed, and the machinery was scattered throughout the yard. However, disabled as the Merrimack was, there was still hope, since the machinery was all there. What was needed now was an extraordinary amount and speed of reassembly.23
First recruiting a number of machinists to replace the local laborers who had quit in an attempt to delay the work, Isherwood divided his labor force into three eight-hour gangs to work around the clock, and then steadily urged them on, day and night, with no respite. The driving, uncompromising spirit of the Engineer in Chief brought forth a herculean response from his men. Whether goaded by his impatience or inspired by his fervor, they worked ceaselessly until the job was done. On Wednesday afternoon, two and one-half days after the work began, they had repaired the Merrimack.
Exhilarated by their accomplishment, Isherwood and Danby reported to McCauley that the Merrimack had received fuel, stores, and a special crew of forty-four firemen and coal heavers personally hired by Isherwood; as soon as McCauley gave permission to fire up, the steamer would be ready to steam out of the port. McCauley, however, saw no need for immediate action; tomorrow morning, he believed, would be early enough for raising steam. Isherwood returned to the ship and put on the regular engine-room watch, ordering them to light fires shortly after midnight.
Promptly at nine o’clock Thursday morning, Isherwood returned to McCauley’s office to inform the Commodore that the crew was on board, the steam was up, the engines were working, and all that remained was McCauley’s order to cast loose the Merrimack and take her to safety. To Isherwood’s “great surprise and dissatisfaction,” McCauley stated that he had not yet decided about sending the Merrimack to Philadelphia at all; he would let Isherwood know in a few hours. Astounded at this apparent disregard of both Welles’s orders and the obvious danger to the Merrimack, Isherwood reminded McCauley of the peremptory nature of Welles’s instructions. Futhermore, he said, the Merrimack could now pass over any obstructions in the channel, but any delay might permit the southerners time to block the exit. McCauley stolidly replied that he would make up his mind at a later time.
Throughout this conversation and in subsequent ones, Isherwood later recalled, McCauley had appeared to be completely prostrate, immobile, stunned by the nature of the crisis, and apparently befuddled from drink. Overwhelmed by his unaccustomed responsibilities, wavering at a time for decision, the aged Commodore was tragically incapable of effective command.
Realizing the futility of moving McCauley to action, Isherwood turned to Commander Alden. The engineers’ work was done, Isherwood explained, showing Alden that the Merrimack was ready; now it was the duty of the line officer to take command of the vessel. Once again, however, there was a lack of that leadership and initiative so necessary in a crisis. Alden, at first enthusiastic about removing the Merrimack, now lost his ardor and shrank from the responsibility of overriding the Commodore’s authority and removing the Merrimack on his own.24
Returning to McCauley, Isherwood was further dismayed to discover that the Commodore had finally made up his mind ; the Merrimack, McCauley now insisted, could not escape, for the channel had already been blocked. There was nothing else to do but stop the engines, extinguish the boiler fires, and keep the Merrimack at Norfolk. Since the Commodore would not listen further to Isherwood’s arguments that the warship could still be moved with perfect safety, there was nothing left for the Engineer in Chief but to return to Washington and inform Welles of the tragic situation.
Angered by McCauley’s moral paralysis and Alden’s dread of assuming authority, Isherwood considered rescuing the vessel himself. He had kept the engines running continuously to demonstrate that the vessel was ready to leave. He had personally hired a crew to operate the ship. Without authority he had removed the chain cables binding the Merrimack to the dock, and had substituted rope hawsers—and placed men with axes to cut the ropes when he gave the signal. With few stores and no armament, the ship would ride high enough in the water to pass over any obstructions now in the channel. When McCauley ordered him to stop the engines and draw the fires, Isherwood recalled, he was “greatly tempted to cut the ropes that held her, and to bring her out on my own responsibility.”25
However, such a seizure of the ship without authority and against orders would have been an unforgivable act. The laws of the American Navy were very clear on this point; no engineer could encroach on the prime prerogative of line officers, that of command. Rescuing the Merrimack would have demonstrated great initiative and daring, but it would also have been a most serious breach of naval discipline. Isherwood also realized, looking back over the affair, that an adequate excuse for such unauthorized action did not exist at the time, but only emerged later with the dramatic consequences of the Confederate seizure and conversion of this steam frigate into the ironclad Virginia. Yet had he rescued the Merrimack, “the disasters which followed her detention, and which are my justification for the desire to take the matter into my own hands, would not have happened,”26 thus forcing him to rely only on the saving of a fine warship to explain his actions—an insufficient excuse for the Navy.
Isherwood prepared to return to Washington, leaving behind the pride of the Navy’s steam fleet, although by this time Virginia had seceded from the Union and there was no further need to placate her citizens. Still unable to act, Commodore McCauley remained at his post, dimly hoping for the reinforcements which would never come.
Meanwhile, secessionist elements in Norfolk, outraged at Isherwood’s attempts to snatch the coveted Merrimack from their grasp, determined to capture the Engineer in Chief and to hold him as a prisoner of war. Fortunately for Isherwood, a sympathetic friend in Norfolk discovered the plot, warned the Engineer, and arranged for his secret departure. Obtaining a cabin in his own name on the regular Chesapeake Bay steamer, Isherwood’s friend boarded the ship with the Engineer in Chief’s trunk, then slipped ashore and rode to the Atlantic Hotel where Isherwood was smuggled into his carriage, which then returned to the ship. Boarding inconspicuously, Isherwood locked himself in the cabin until the steamer was safely on its way to Washington. The party of Confederates assembled on the wharf to capture him waited in vain and discovered the deception only after they had returned to the hotel in search of Isherwood.27
On the morning of April 19, the Old Bay Line steamer arrived in Washington where Isherwood and Alden, who had also decided to leave Norfolk, reported to Welles. Furious at Alden’s failure to rescue the Merrimack, the Secretary still hoped to discover a way by which the Navy Yard might be defended, but subsequent discussions with military advisors brought Welles and the President to the reluctant conclusion that the yard must fall