one o'clock before
Their crews aggregated more than a thousand men . The new crack steam frigates _ Minnesota _ and _ Roanoke _ had crews of six hundred men each and carried more than eighty guns of nine and eleven-inch caliber . That any single craft afloat would dare attack such a squadron was preposterous . It was one o'clock before the strange black looking object swung into the channel and turned her nose up stream toward Newport News . The crews of the _ Congress _ and the _ Cumberland _ were lounging on deck enjoying the balmy spring air . It was wash day and the clothes were fluttering in the breeze . They could n't make out the foolish-looking thing at first .