The intended grave was reached shortly before midnight on February 9, and the men went aboard to open the main and injection valves as well as the discharge valve. At 12.15 a.m. the last man left the decks of the derelict gunboat, as she was expected to sink within the usual three hours. At 3 a.m. however, it was found that the Monocacy was not so easily sunk as had been believed, and another party boarded hereto find that she was slowly taking water aft but that the bow was unaffected. Consequently, it was decided to aid by ramming her with the tug and after a few attempts, which only, resulted in the damaging of about five feet of wooden fender, and in moving the ship some 30 feet from her original point, nothing happened. The ramming, the officers hoped, would result in the damaging of the plates at the waterline and would thus speed up that last trip to the bottom of the muddy waters, but the sturdy construction of the veteran gunboat seemed to withhold the rough. treatment.
Patiently, those charged with her destruction stood by until about 6 a.m., when an inspection revealed that the main deck aft, was awash whilst the bow was slightly above the water level.
Half an hour later, the party again boarded the decommissioned ship, to find that the boiler rooms were two thirds under water, whilst aft she was completely submerged, yet no further progress in the sinking operations seemed to materialize, whereupon it was decided to let the Pauline Moller ram her again. For one hour the tug worked hard, ramming here sixteen times on the starboard, and six times on the port side, for, so the officers thought, now that parts were submerged already, it would be easy to cause seams along the rivets, which
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.