A Cairo letter gives the following account of Hollins’s great ram, which is now at Island Ten :—
“I have seen a rough sketch of Hollins’s celebrated gunboat—the Manassas, or Turtle—taken from the descriptions of intelligent persons in Columbus, who have seen her. She is about one hundred feet long and twenty feet beam, and draws from nine to twelve feet water. Her shape above water is nearly that of half a sharply-pointed egg shell, so that a shot will glance from her, no matter where it strikes. Her back is formed of 12-inch oak, covered with 1 1/2-inch bar iron. She has two chimneys, so arranged as to slide down in time of action. The pilot-house is in the stern of the boat. She is worked by a powerful propeller, but cannot stem a strong current. She carries only one gun, a 68 pounder, right in her bow. The secessionists of Columbus say that at one time she would have come up here to test the metal of our forts if the water had not been too low. There was no time, however, while she was at Columbus, when there was not water enough to float her. She is said to be now at Island No. 10, and it is reported that she would come up and engage our boats if she could stem the current. There is only one entrance to her through a trap-door in her back. Her port-hole is furnished with a heavily plated trap, which springs up when the gun is run out, and falls down when it is run back. How the crew get their light and air, I can’t pretend to say. This ‘Turtle’ is certainly a formidable affair, a second Merrimac in its way, and appears to be capable of doing much damage, while receiving hut little. It would be impossible to board her, as there is only one entrance, and she is supplied with hose for throwing hot water.’’
Springfield Weekly Republican, Springfield, MA