The Nashville Daily Union

An Englishman writing from San Francisco, says he has been watching the building of a Monitor there, and gives his opinion of the relative merits of these vessels and the English iron-clads, as follows: "Now the turret of a Monitor has never yet been penetrated, and owing to their decks being only a few inches above water, the whole of the deck beams and planking serves as backing to the laminated armor at the sides; so, if the beam is fifty feet, the armor has that amount of backing, because between the plank and beams of the deck there are iron braces of one inch by four running diagonally across the deck, under the planking. Compare this with the 10 inch teak backing of the Warrior. Why, all the English iron-clads are cockle-shells when compared with Yankee Monitors."