Blockade Runners - The South’s Lifeline (Article 31)

Among their legendary names were the “Denbigh”, the “Bermuda”, the “Calhoun”, the “Cecile”, the “Banshee” and over one thousand other ships with similar missions.  They were fast and they needed to be as they were the prey.  One writer called it “A most deadly game of hare and hounds” and the hounds were in the Union Navy, which rapidly became the largest naval force in the world.  And, the prey was the South’s lifeline.

 Soon after the start of the Civil War, the Union began a naval blockade of the major harbors in the Confederate states. The purpose was to disrupt the flow of war related materials into the South and restrict the export of goods (primarily cotton and rice) which Southern states needed to sell to foreign countries.  While the much smaller Confederate Navy occasionally tried to challenge the blockade, they were ineffective and, for the most part, the major ports remained restricted.

 So, a new industry was born!

 The Atlantic coastline of the Southern states from Virginia, around Florida, and along the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, had hundreds of smaller ports, simple docks, and river passages that became the lifeline for goods that needed shipped into and out of the South.  There were not enough Union war ships to cover every possible landing site. Supplies from Europe, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean would be delivered to Cuba and the Bahamas by large ocean going cargo ships and then offloaded into smaller swift ships bound for these secondary southern ports. After avoiding the Union Navy and delivering the foreign cargo, they would then be loaded with exports and sail back to their Caribbean port.   

 In the English language, seldom does the same word describe both an object and give a designation to the person involved. However that is the case with “blockade runner” which describes both a specific type of ship used by the South in the Civil War and also is the name given to the sailors who manned the ship.

 The new ships were built in England, France and Spain and were designed to combine maximum speed with reasonable cargo capacity. Although some had sails, they were primarily powered by steam engines which usually drove a single large side mounted paddle-wheel, but occasionally ships had either two paddlewheels with one on each side or a propeller mounted in back. They were long (usually 125-200 feet,  narrow and with a shallow draft to offer less resistance in the water, some had an iron clad bow, and the ships were usually painted off white or dull gray to blend in with the sea and the horizon.  Of course, since the profits could be so high, many older ships were pressed into service as a blockade runner but often they were too slow or otherwise unsuited for the task and were easily captured or sunk by the Union Navy.

 One contemporary British observer wrote about the blockade runners who operated around the Charleston area. “The scheme involved two ships, one designed for the long and innocent voyage across the ocean and another in which every devise known was employed that could increase efficiency, speed, invisibility, certain space for stowage and to these qualities, and all others were sacrificed. In the latest vessels of this class speed was too much studied at the expense of strength, and some of them were disabled before they reached their cruising speed, and were worthless. For the blockade runner, the excitement of fighting was wanting as the ship could make no resistance, for as a rule, she was not prepared to make any, as a pound of arms meant one pound less of goods. He could choose his time for the final run and when the moment came was prepared for it; and his moments of action were followed by intervals of repose and relaxation. It is not without danger as the runner must hug close to the shore with the Blockader (Union Navy) on one side and the rocks of the coast on the other, with no light house or flares and only a good pilot to guide them. It is a most satisfactory business.”

 One blockade runner, the “Denbigh”, made so many successful runs that Confederate officials called her the “Packet” and the “Ghost”.

 Those who sailed these ships, were in a very risky business, but one for which they were handsomely paid. One writer wrote that the Captains had “The cunning of a fox, the patience of a Job, and the bravery of a Spartan warrior.” Another said, “They were driven by Pride, Patriotism, and Pocket; although not always in that priority.”

 The owners, Captains and sailors were also called blockade runners.  Most were not affiliated with the Confederate navy, but were pure capitalists (or profiteers as they were commonly called).  Some British Navy Captains even took a leave of absence to reap the large rewards paid by ship owners for only a few voyages.  While some Captains were given “official papers” by the Confederate government or by a southern state, such documentation was primarily for use when transacting business in a foreign port or if they encountered a Confederate naval vessel. The documents were of absolutely no help if the blockade runner was unfortunate enough to be engaged by the Union Navy, in which case the ship would be seized, or sunk, the cargo confiscated and the sailors arrested. The owners considered such loss simply a cost of doing business and reflected the risk in their prices. However, because their newest ships had been specifically designed to be faster and more maneuverable than war-ships, even when detected the blockade runner often escaped.

 The risk of loss, however, was not limited to capture by the Union Navy. More blockade runners were actually lost as they tried to navigate into the smaller ports without the benefit of lighthouses and channel buoys; often ending up aground on shoals or broken up when dashed upon rocks in storms.

 At one time in 1864, it is estimated that nearly 1,000 specifically built or re-fitted ships were plying the southern Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico as blockade runners.  Records show that over 200 such ships were captured or floundered, but most historians believe the number was much higher.

 The blockade runners (the ships and the men) were initially employed to bring needed munitions to the Confederate armies. For example over 600,000 rifles, 200,000 pistols, 2,000 cannon and numerous swords (which were still a weapon of choice for officers during the Civil War) were delivered from European manufactures. Many of the ship Captains also ran a personal business of supplying luxury items to discerning, and wealthy, Southerners; some of whom created or maintained their wealth by selling the imported goods at very high prices to their government and their neighbors. One Captain reported on a single voyage bringing in 100 cases of French champagne, 200 bolts of fine silk, 10 cases of hair dye, 50 sets of English china, and “too much silver serving pieces to count.”  The outbound run from the Confederate states was also wildly profitable as cotton could be sold in England for 10-20 times more that it had cost to buy from the Southern cotton brokers.

 To the people of the South, the blockade runners were romanticized as heroes, although most were driven by money and not by ideology. Mary Chesnut, the famous Civil War diarist wrote: “An iron steamer has run the blockade at Savannah. We raise our wilted heads like flowers after a shower.”  And, in Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind,” Rhett Butler was a blockade runner and she accurately portrayed their prevailing attitude by having Butler scoff at both the idealism of the Confederacy and the ineptitude of the “Yankees” to catch him; while he grew rich from the trade.

 However, it was not always so easy.

 When a ship was captured, and many were, whether on an import or export leg, the value of both the vessel and the cargo were a total loss for the owner. Occasionally, ships that were destroyed on the rocks due to a storm or to imprecise navigation were also total losses. However, not all shipwrecks were accidental. There were instances in which a Captain of a blockade runner, being pursued by the Union Navy, would intentionally run his ship onto the shore near where he was to meet his Confederate associates; who would then quickly offload the cargo and usually burn the ship.  These cases could still be profitable for the owner as the cargo was often worth more than the ship; and he could replace the vessel with the profits.

 Despite their daring, and their ability to maneuver past the Union navy, the blockade runners could not move enough goods to save the South.

 For many years before the Civil War, the South had built an efficient mercantile business trading cotton and rice to Europe in return for manufactured goods. However, this business model worked against the South during the war as their production of agricultural goods for export dramatically declined and, because they had always depended upon imported finished goods, they had built very little manufacturing capability. As the Southern revenues from exports declined, the cost of imports such as clothing, farm implements, and especially weaponry, rapidly accelerated. The Confederacy went deeper into debt, over-expanded their currency and their entire economy gradually collapsed. The blockade runners could only slow, but not prevent, the downward spiral. 

 In the last few months of the war, far fewer blockade runners were active. First, the Southern merchants and Confederate government could no longer afford to acquire the imports, nor could they deliver exports; so the ship owners moved their operations to more profitable waters.

 Simply put, the business of blockade running had run its course.

Contact the author at  gadorris2@gmail.com