The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-03-03
BATTLING THE BL0CKADERS
The Kind of Men II Took to Make Block.
ade Runners.
,Sura1,nnh Morning NcWS.

.S"ranpah Morning Ncms.
The experimental work now being
done by the North Atlantic Squadron
in the way of blockading Charleston
harbor with the torpedo boat Vcsuvius
as blockade runner has received a
great deal of attention, but nowhere
has more interest been aroused than
at the office of the Savannah Pilots
Association, on Bay street.
The pilots office is irregular nest of
old blockade runners, and the block
ade work now being done at Charles
ton has recalled "reminiscences by the
score. The stories that have been
told in the pilots office recently would
make most interesting book, and the
book would be all the more interest
ing if the words of these men in re-
counting their hair-breadth escapes
were given.
There are ten Of the old blockade
runners still living in Savannah.
They are: Capts. NJ. p. Usina, G. A..
Marmelstein, A. L. Marmelstein, John
Fitzgerald, W. T. Daniels, Sr., James
S. Bliss, NJ. Lyons, John H. Craig,
W. H. Spencer and H. NJ. c. Smith,
the latter superintendent of the Pro-
peller Towboat Company. Not a man
of them but went over the Bar at
Charleston and Wilmington a score or
more of times between '63 and '65, in
spite of the efforts to prevent them by
several times as many cruisers as are
now blockading Charleston.
The Savannah pilots did not have a
fair show at blockade running during
the war, the long narrow channel of
the Savannah River offering less op-
portunity for this work and Fort Pu-
laski, which effectually commanded
the entrance to the river having fallen
into the hands Of the enemy early in
the war. Nearly all of them went to
blockade running, but not being ac-
quainted with the channels Of the har-
bors of Charleston and Wilmington,
the two principal ports for the block
ade runners on the Atlantic coast,
most. of them had to take positions as
mates and second officers.
Capt. NJ. P. Usina had better luck
than his friends, however, and having
had experience at sea secured vessel
to command early in the war. He
had the most remarkable luck of any
of the blockade running business,
making number of successful trips
and never being captured. He was
the youngest captain in the business,
being only 25 years old when the war
closed. Capt. Usina's luck was attri.
buted, however, by his brother block
ade runners, to his dog Tinker, who
always accompanied him on his trips.
Tinker was known to every blockade
runner in the business. Capt. Usina
was offered $500 in gold for him to"
wards the close of the war by an En-
glishman who had just been promoted.
to the captaincy of blockade runner,
Capt. Usina declined the offer with
the remark, "Green, two fools, YOU
and l." Tinker seemed unable to
survive the downfall of the Confed-
eracy, and on July 4, 1865, his body
was consigned to the waves amid the
icebergs Of the North Atlantic.
"Blockade running, as it is being
done over at Charleston now, and
blockade running as we had it to de-
during the war are two entirely differ
ent things Capt. Usina said to a
Morning News reporter yesterday.
"It is one thing to run the blockade
when you know there is no danger,
and where there is plenty of water and
another thing to run it whgc the yes,
sci and cargo and Ives Of the men
we're risked, rath>r than suffer cap
ture. Charleston harbor is well sup
piled with light houses now, and the
channel is we'll marked. When we
ran the blockade there we're no lights
and no marks by which to ascertain
the channel. All we had was lead
line. 1t might be a little more diff
cult to run the blockade now, on some
accounts, as some of the channels,
which existed during the war, have
probably been closed up by the Gov
ernment work there is considered
Jetty work in the harbor which did
not exist then, and the blockading
vessels are supplied with better sys-
tenn of search lights with which to spy
out the runners. The blockading yes
sells were supplied with very powerful
calcium lights during the war, how
ever, aDd could easily expose runner
to view il brought to bear on her, but
the lights we're not kept in constant
service. The modern men-of-war can
keep their electric search lights NOV
ing from point to point and make it
more difficult for blockade runner to
conceal her movements. Their guns,
too, are longer range. Our principal
forte in blockade running was to take
to shoal water, the vessels being o.
light draft. Many more vessels were
lost by being run aground in shallow
water than by capture by the enemy
and these wrecks of other runners
we're one. of the dangers which we had
to guard against. The wonder is,
though, that with so many vessels
guarding each port, cruising the seas
and lying in, wait for US right off the
entrance to friendly ports, that so
many vessels escaped capture. The
amount Of stuff brought into the Con-
federacy. military stores of all kinds,
medical supplies and manufactured
goods of all descriptions, was some
thing enormous.
cat the beginning of the war the
captains of nearly all the vessels en-
gagged in the business were English
men, but towards the close of the war,
as the service grew more dangerous
and the profits more uncertain, the
captains were nearly all Southerners.
There was some splendid fellows
among these Englishmen though,
among the number being Hobart Pa.
sha, who afterwards became admiral
Of the Turkish navy. lie was an Eng
lish post captain on the waiting list
when the war broke out, and went
into the blockade running business be-
cause he had nothing else to do just
then. He afterwards wrote book of
his adventures, including his blockad-
ing experiences. In blockade times
he WAC known as Cant. Roberts, |