you all may have come into contact with -- robert chessborough within the last weeks or days. he is the inventer of vaseline. so, chessborough writes in and he works for a petroleum company at the moment and i was very amused to find that one of the letters how to melt the merrimac its written on a company called the brooklyn fire insurance co. so apparently they, they knew how to start fires. chessborough again says, what you do, you put a 5,000 gallon tank on the monitor, use a worthington force pump and you spray the merrimac with this fluid. in 15 minutes her gun deck will be untenable. in 30 there will probably be an explosion. it can be readied in three days, cost as the bis about $5,000. i am aware the cry of inhumane warfare will be raised. but he says the object is to only induce surrender. as soon as the rebels surrender then the monitor can switch to spraying water an it will wash the flames off. and again you will achieve your ends. if fire couldn't be used, how about live steam? in fact there are several people who suggest that if you want a dead ironclad, you inje