The next day, on March 9, 1862, the world's first battle between ironclads took place. The smaller, nimbler, and faster "Monitor" was able to outmaneuver the larger, slower "Virginia", but neither ship proved able to do any severe damage to the other, despite numerous shell hits by both combatants, many fired at virtually point-blank range. "Monitor" had a much lower freeboard and only its single, rotating, two-cannon gun turret and forward pilothouse sitting above her deck, and thus was much harder to hit with "Virginia"s heavy cannon. After hours of shell exchanges, "Monitor" finally retreated into shallower water after a direct shell hit to her armored pilothouse forced her away from the conflict to assess the damage. The captain of the "Monitor", Lieutenant John L. Worden, had taken a direct gunpowder explosion to his face and eyes, blinding him, while looking through the pilothouse's narrow, horizontal viewing slits. "Monitor" remained in the shallows, but as it was late in the day, "Virginia" steamed for her home port, the battle ending without a clear victor: The captain of "Virginia" that day, Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones, received advice from his pilots to depart over the sandbar toward Norfolk until the next day. Lieutenant Jones wanted to continue the fight, but the pilots emphasized that the "Virginia" had "nearly three miles to run to the bar" and that she could not remain and "take the ground on a falling tide." To prevent running aground, Lieutenant Jones reluctantly moved the ironclad back toward port. "Virginia" retired to the Gosport Naval Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, and remained in drydock for repairs until April 4, 1862.