waste a shot."Monitor, to the surprise of Virginias crew, had emerged from behind Minnesota and positioned herself between her and the grounded ship, preventing the Confederate ironclad from further engaging the vulnerable wooden ship at close range. At 8:45 am Worden gave the order to fire where Greene fired the first shots of the battle between the two ironclads which harmlessly deflected off the Confederate ironclad. During the battle Monitor fired solid shot, about once every eight minutes, while Virginia fired shell exclusively. The ironclads fought, generally at close range, for about four hours, ending at 12:15 pm, ranging from a few yards to more than a hundred. Both ships were constantly in motion, maintaining a circular pattern. Because of Virginias weak engines, great size and weight, and a draft of , she was slow and difficult to maneuver, taking her half an hour to complete a 180-degree turn. During the engagement, Monitors turret began to malfunction, making it extremely difficult to turn and stop at a given position, so the crew simply let the turret continuously turn and fired their guns "on the fly" as they bore on Virginia. Monitor received several direct hits on the turret, causing some bolts to violently shear off and ricochet around inside. The deafening sound of the impact stunned some of the crew, causing nose and ear bleeding.Leckie, 1990, p. 211 However, neither vessel was able to sink or seriously damage the other. At one point, Virginia attempted to ram, but only struck Monitor a glancing blow and did no damage. The collision did, however, aggravate the damage to Virginias bow from when she had previously rammed Cumberland. Monitor was also unable to do significant damage to Virginia, possibly because her guns were firing with reduced charges, on advice from Commander John Dahlgren, the gun's designer, who lacked the "preliminary information" needed to determine what amount of charge was needed to "pierce, dislocate or dislodge iron plates" of various thicknesses and configurations.Dahlgren, 1882, p. 279 During the battle Stodder was stationed at the wheel that controlled the turning of the turret, but at one point when he was leaning against its side the turret received a direct hit directly opposite to him which knocked him clear across the inside, rendering him unconscious. He was taken below to recover and relieved by Stimers.Maclay, 1894, p. 313 The two vessels were pounding each other at