government does invest in proposed by brutus devillearoy. a french immigrant. you are familiar with, remember, warners brother cartoons, wile e. coyote. de villearoy. he puts on the census, occupation, natural genius. the alligator, a pro tow types built. it is even brought down to hampton roads at one point. but it is also not terribly workable. the navy officers who command it find that, yes it's, it submerges but goes straight to the bottom. it does not, you know, float, very well. doesn't answer, its helm. got all these different problems. and they tinker with it for two years. the alligator is sent to charleston when it sings off cape hatteras, close to where the monitor went down just almost a year before. even levelheaded montgomery meggs suggests we need to take out the merrimac in emergency. put men on different ships, have them jump on the merrimac and throw grenades down the smokestack. the merrimac's smokestack an object of sing lar faular fasci by those who view it as an achilles heel, a chinning in the armor that could mean destruction if handled