<P> By late March, the Union blockade fleet had been augmented by hastily refitted civilian ships, including the powerful SS Vanderbilt, SS Arago, SS Illinois, and SS Ericsson . These had been outfitted with rams and some iron plating . By late April, the new ironclads USRC E.A. Stevens and USS Galena had also joined the blockade . </P> <P> Each side considered how best to eliminate the threat posed by its opponent, and after Virginia returned each side tried to goad the other into attacking under unfavorable circumstances . Both captains declined the opportunity to fight in water not of their own choosing; Jeffers in particular was under positive orders not to risk his ship . Consequently, each vessel spent the next month in what amounted to posturing . Not only did the two ships not fight each other, neither ship ever fought again after March 9 . </P> <P> The end came first for Virginia . Because the blockade was unbroken, Norfolk was of little strategic use to the Confederacy, and preliminary plans were laid to move the ship up the James River to the vicinity of Richmond . Before adequate preparations could be made, the Confederate Army under Major General Benjamin Huger abandoned the city on May 9, without consulting anyone from the Navy . Virginia's draft was too great to permit her to pass up the river, which had a depth of only 18 ft (5.5 m), and then only under favorable circumstances . She was trapped and could only be captured or sunk by the Union Navy . Rather than allow either, Tatnall decided to destroy his own ship . He had her towed down to Craney Island in Portsmouth, where the gang were taken ashore, and then she was set afire . She burned through the rest of the day and most of the following night; shortly before dawn, the flames reached her magazine, and she blew up . </P> <P> Monitor likewise did not survive the year . She was ordered to Beaufort, North Carolina, on Christmas Day, to take part in the blockade there . While she was being towed down the coast (under command of her fourth captain, Commander John P. Bankhead), the wind increased and with it the waves; with no high sides, the Monitor took on water . Soon the water in the hold gained on the pumps, and then put out the fires in her engines . The order was given to abandon ship; most men were rescued by USS Rhode Island, but 16 went down with her when she sank in the early hours of December 31, 1862 . </P>

Who won the battle of the merrimack and monitor