British-Built Blockade Runners of the American Civil War
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Ht•prilltPd frout '1'/u~ ./rmrnal of ('umml'rce und Shipping Teli'(JTa]Jh, Sat 11 rday, N O\'em her 14, HJ4~ BRITISH-BUILT BLOCKADE RUNNERS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR Extracts from a paper read by Mr. ARTHUR C. WARDLE, M.I.Ex., - before - The Liverpool Nautical Research Society on November 7th, 1942. No. 7. A 'I' a time u-hen State and local passE.'d hut a spc:>erl\· craft. paint.·d records a r,, ,.renN·n ll:r innl"ces white or gre.r (forerunne;· of on r sible, it may Sl'l'lll pt·esumptuous Admiralty f.);rcy) sped stealthily into to put forward any lengthy treatise the blackness towards one of the on this subjE'<'t, and the following Confedcmte port~. pages met·ely rep resent a re\· iew of This dandestinc tr·affie, however. notes collated casuall_,. during tl1e was not. due nwn·ly to the plan" of past two _years. BnlloPh and his European agents. ~o comprehensin• work relatiul! Enterprising Bt·itish mNehants, to the hloelwde-runners has en:•r mainlv associated with the American lwen compiled. Indeed, such a cottm; trade, fiuding that the war task would hP difficult, for their was destined to kill their nornwl trade was often clandestine, they trade for the:> time beiug, were qni•·i: <·hanged names and ownershir)s to discern the financial benefi:, many times. and on oceasion Wl'rf' which might aePI"lle from a contr,t quite indifferent as to the national flag the:v wore. band tradt> with the Southern On t)lis sidl' of the Atlantic. States. official lists of seizures and losses FABULOUS FREIGHT RATES are not available, and so the his The hazards of the vPntnre were torian must content himself with a great, and increased with the grow discerning scrutiny of c-ontem porary newspapet· files, shipbuildt>rs' ing vigilanc(' and E>fficiency of the lists and fleet lists. blockading forces, but the pri?.e At the outset of the war, when was valua.ble. Fabulous freight rates Federa 1 ern isers of moderate speed pre\·ailed, and abnormally high rates onl~· we-re in commission, the of pay attracted many skilful and blockadE' proved t·ather lax, and by intrepid British mariners, as well as •June, 1861, the " runners " had highly qualified engineers . got into almost full stride, Chnrles Thu·s, the Confedemtes paid dear!_,. ton and Wilmington bemg then for such importations as reached <·onsidered relatively easy trips. them by this method. Fortunes Those who have read Captain were made and lost bv merchants Bulloch's Secret Service of the and shipownl'fs who · owned the Confederate States will recollect the vessels, and some indication of the ohject of his mission to Europe and naval and maritime risks involved his use of Li,·erpool as a base for may be gained from the fact that, hi;;; activities. in 1864, of the 71 blockade-nmners FAST BRITISH CRAFT which used one base alone, Bermuda, It was from that port that he 43 had been lost by the end of negotiated the purchase and con November of that year. struction of the armed raiders One of the earliest blockade Oreto (re-named Florida) and runners to be constructed in the .\labama, which were soon to prove United Kingdom was the iron-scr('W so costly to Anglo-American friend steamer Bermuda, 897 tons gross, ship and to the British taxpayerr. built by Pearce and Lockwood, in The Confederate Government also 1861, at Stockton-on-Tees, and fitted appointed the firm of Fraser Tren with engines of 135 h.p. by Fossic-k holme and Co., Liverpool, as and Hackworth. She was completed European financial agents. the in August and moved round to JJiver rf'sident partner being then Charles pool, where she was registered in K nhn Prioleau. the name of Edwin Haigh, a local ~o time was lost in the acquir·~ cotton broker. ment or construction of fast British Within a few days of the regis eraft for official Confederate tration, however, a certificate of ;JCCOtmt for the pwrposes of running sale was exeruted in favour of t-he blockade. Bermuda. the A. S. Henckel and George Alfred Bahamas, and Havana were fixPd Trenholme, of Charleston. She made as the chief entrepots for the trade. several successful trips, ami was Swift, spick and span paddle manned by a crew of 30 under com steamers, loaded down to their rails mand of Captain Eugene Tessier, almost with cargo and bunkers, and later Captain C. W. Westen ·were despatched from British ports dorff, until seized and condemned under the British flag for some such by the Federal Govemment towa~·ds t·endezvous as Nassau. where, after the end of 1862. filling empty bunker space with Her sister ship, the Bahama, 88i additional cargo, they would make tons, \vas launched " by torch light '' a swift run into Savannah or other block wed port ami then return. from thl' same yard on Janual"y 24. laden with cotton, &c.. often 1862. and eventually fitted out on the Mersey, where she was reais arriving with masts shot awa~· and hulls battered after encountering t.ered in the name of Edwin Haigh, FedE>ral ships of war. who later transferred her to Nassau developed particularb· as Frederick Chapman, of IJondon. a base. Coal depots were estab Both vessels were barque-rigged lished on Hog's Island, in addition and measured 215ft. length hv to construction of a drck in wl1ich 29.2ft. beam and 8.98ft. depth. Th'P damaged 11 runners " could he Bahama made many trips, and ~cted repaiTt>d; and scarcely a night as a tender to the raider Alahama clUJ·in~ t.he latter's armament on the l";wour ul" Thomas E. Taylor, on!· )f high s<>as. In August, 1862, she is Lawrence's employes, and who shown as clearing from Liverpool for became his agent at Nassau, for Nassau, with a crew of 45 men under whence she cleared from the Mersey Captain .K L. Tessier, her agents on )larch 2, 1863, with a crew of being l\J. G. Klingender and Co. :16. Her plates were ~in. and ~in. The name of Melchior George thick, and she pro\•ed so leaky at Kling;l'nder appears man\· timl.'s as the outsE-t that she was compelled I"l'gister('(] owllel· or pseudo-owner to put into an Irish port and, after of ,·essels employed as bloekade •·ppair, rpached Nassau safely. runners, and in 1860 he was agent The BanshE-e made eight successful at LiH•rpool for the GalwaY Line bloC'knde-rHnning trips which re ~1f stL•au1crs to St. John'S: ~ew hu·npd her sha •·eholders 700 per loundland, and the United :-itates. Cl'nt. of the-ir C'apital, until she was :\either the Bermuda nor the captnn•d in 1863 by n Federal gun llahama had a speed exceedin~.!; 10 boat and converted into a ship nf o1· 11 knots, and indeed at this war. Th!' storv of the Banshee is Parl.v stag:!' of the war little mm·e well told ir. Tom .E. Taylor's "Hun was needed to l"iude thP ,.j<Tilance n ing the Blol'kadl'." of Federal cruisers. ,..., She was followed, in 186;j, by the During these earl~· months, the 1ron paddle steamer Wild Dnyrell. of ag:greg;ate tonnage of the hlockade the same tonna~e and horn the same r Llllners was not coHsid.,.ra hie, and yard. with engines of 150 h.p. 1:o~1sisted mainly of small, though This vpssel was registered :1t t_an]y f;~s~. !"argo YPssels purehased Liverpool in the name of l<~dward I rom Rnt1sh owners. fly the ,;princr LawrE>nre, and on November 17, of 186~ th~. blo!"kadl' tight!'nl"d up~ 1863, c·leared for Nassau, with a a ud so sw1ft!'r craft wl're ne!'ded. c-r~:>w of 26 under Captain T. Cub J n April of that year the iron bins. Her carei"J" proved short, paddle steamers Anglia (-!.56 tons news reaching the :\lersey early m g;mss) and Rcotia (462 tons gross) l<'ebruarv, 1864, that she had been huilt in 18-!7 at West Ham an(i destroyed off Charleston. Black wall respflctively, were pur Meanwhile, a sister ship, the chased and despatched from the Lucy, a steel paddle steamer, fitted )le•·sey for Nassau. Both had been with 150 h.p. engines by Fawcett, em pl<?yed for. years in the Holyhead Preston and Co., was completed by Dubhn ma1l service and were and capable of 15 knots per hour. They Jones, Quiggin and Co. in 1863 were each schooner-rigged and two •·egistered as owned by E. J. J,om funnelled. nitiz, of Manchester. She cleared in OctobE-r of that year for Nassau, EIGHT SUCCESSFUL TRIPS with a crew of 32 men under Captain Thl" An~!;lia, which was c-om ,J. A. Duiguid, but was captm·ed !llallded ~~~· <'aptain A. Xl:'wlands, three months later, whill' .lff 1s shown 111 th!' Li,·<>rpool r~:>gist.ry \Vilmington. as owned hy .\l!'xnnd!'r Duranb·, a ~ocal merchant. SllP was capti1recl ANOTHER BANSHEE 1n 186:l by_ Federal warships. A second and hll"ger Banshee was The Scotla, unde1· Captain R. H. built in 1864 for the Lawrence firm. Eustace and later Captain Lilly. of She was a steel paddle vessel of 628 CharlE>ston. made several voyages tons gross and ,138 tons net. from until captlll"ed in 1862.