two o'clock
Board and capture her ! '' The smoke-smeared crew swarmed to the portholes and were just in the act of springing on the decks of the _ Monitor _ , when she backed quickly and dropped down stream . After six hours of thunder in each other 's faces the _ Monitor _ drew away into the shoal waters guarding the _ Minnesota _ . The _ Merrimac _ could not follow her in the shallows and at two o'clock turned her prow again toward Sewell 's Point . The battle was a drawn conflict . But the plucky little _ Monitor _ had won a tremendous moral victory . She had rescued the navy in the nick of time .