The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-23

A<0Ekc hOE w AICh men TOOK
Great Risks Precautions Against Dis
covery-An Instance In Which the
BlocIxader Was Footed.
The several attempts to run the
Blockade about the western end of
Cuba in the last few weeks had more
than usual interest for Major w. A.
Campbell, who has some very lively re-
collections of experiences of his own
when he was a successful and widely
known runner of the blockades of
southern ports during the war of the
rebellion. The major is quiet, modest
ranchman among the foothills of this
locality.
Blockade running" said Major
Campbell, sis science. There is moth
ing in warfare that requires more con-
summate GOODNESS and precise daring.
There is none Of the fierce excitement
as in battle, but the blockade runner
must either be running away like mad
or be shot at by broadside from a
man-of-war. There will probably new
er be such desperate chances taken in
blockade running as there We're in the
last two years Of the rebellion The
enormous profits there were in block
ade running excited the most ingenious
and daring ability in seamanship. I
know that Captains Charles Weston
and Grover A. Baldwin of Atlanta, Ga.
each made a fortune of over fifty
thousand dollars in two years service
as blockade runners. The brig Brazil
ran a score of blockades in the four
years of warfare, and her crew got
extraordinary wages. Twice the Brazil
was shot into so severely that it is a
miracle she ever foated an hour longer.
"At one time there were fully one
hundred and fifty vessels engaged in
systematically running the Union
blockades Of the southern ports, and in
1852, believe, a score of blockade-run-
ming craft were sunk by the fire Of the
Gordon Of Union vessels, and all the
crews and cargoes went down beneath
the wave. The money resulting from
"A 3QlOGhdQG IulllllllE CduSCd AIG pun VI
\ Nassau to be fairly overrun with
wealth. The scenes at this West In
dia port resembled those at San Fran
cisco during the gold fever period. The
banks of Nassau became so heavily
taxed with deposits that the vaults on
many occasions were unable to con-
tain all the specie presented and it
soon became quite common to see gold
sovereigns lying in great heaps on the
5loor Of a bank with a soldier standing
guard. Previous to the war Nassau
was but little known Blockade run
ming made the little port one of the
most prominent of England's possess
sions. Bermuda and Nassau were the
two great objective points of outward
bound blockade runners, the near posi-
stion Of the two ports to the American
coast alone accounting for the selec
ton.
s'It was expected that a newly pur-
chased vessel should clear herself on
4 her first run Every succeeding run
meant enormous profits to her owners.
Money was SO plenty in Nassau that
men gambled, drank and seemed crazy
TO get rid Of their money. Prodigious
Wagers were put up by blockade run
ners In their efforts to spend gold.
The cause Of this was that the Confed-
crates were paying the English i'm
porters and jobbers at Nassau large
prices for goods, but these figures of
cost were multiplied enormously in the
Confederacy. The price of cotton was
not Increased in the same ratio, and
this large difference in values between
4 We,
profits which induced these ventures.
Ten dollars invested in quinine in Mas
sau would bring from four to six hum
dred dollars in Charleston.
The necessity of getting southern
cotton to England for use in the facto-
ries there caused the inducement for
Blockade running, and the pursuit, if it
may be called that, sprang up rapidly.
People who were not In the enterprise
Ean have no idea these days how allur-
ing blockade running was. Cotton was
bought in the Confederacy for twenty
five to thirty cents pound In gold, or
Its equivalent and sold outside for
$3.50 to 81. 80 per pround. Many cargo
that cost fifteen thousand dollars in
Georgia and Alabama was sold in the
British ports for one hundred and fifty
Thousand dollars. / knew a cargo on
the Red Rover that had cost eighteen
thousand dollars to sell for nearly two
hundred thousand dollars. Most of the
blockade running was done by corpor
atoms. Among the largest of those
engaged in the business was the Bee
\ Company of Charleston, S. c., who
owned the famous blockade runner Cy-
rene. She ran the blockade thirty-two
times in and out of Charleston. When
charleston was evacuated she was ly-
ing at her wharf there, and her own
ers burned her rather than allow her to
fall into the hands of the enemy. The
confederate government owned several
Notwithstanding vessels to replenish
the supply store, and also several
states owned blockade runners, among
them Virginia and North Carolina.
ITO give an idea how quickly these
ships We're constructed an order could
be given to a ship-builder on the Mer-
sey or Clyde for ship costing from
forty to fifty thousand pounds-that is,
from two hundred to two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. These vessels
were anchored in the river ready for
sea sixty days after the contracts We're
signed They were light draught, re-