The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1955-11-25

recalled that something tune
sword?) must be salvaged from
the sinking ship. He and the pur-
ser put out to sea in a small boat,
and were drowned before they
could reach the Fanny and
Jenny.
In 1861, President Lincoln pro-
claimed military and commercial
blockade of southern ports, and the
Federal forces quickly enforced
this paper blockade with a fleet
OF some 264 armed ships, of which
% operated in the Atlantic area
and 21 in the Gulf. The blockade
was further enforced with the
sinking of weighted vessels across
the channels into Charleston and
Savannah. Wilmington, N ort h
Carolina, became center of
blockade running and blockade en-
forcement. The first blockader be-
gan vigilance on the Cape Fear
area in 1861, and it was not long
before 80 blockaders were guard
ing New Inlet and the western, or
main bar, inlet into Masonboro
Sound. Wilmington was an ideal
lort, not only because Of its acccs-
sibility by deep water, but because
Of its proximity to Nassau, and
Bermuda, from which cargo from
England and the Continent could
be routed to the Confederate
States. From Cape Fear to Mas
5au, it is $40 miles; to Bermuda,
STA. Blockade runners-capable of
about is knots-could make the
"Trip to Nassau from Wilmington
IN about IS to 55 hours; to Ber-
muda in Y. It was via Cape Fear
shat Captain Tom Taylor took the
"Banshee' to Nassau and brought
back load Of provisions for the
Army Of Northern Virginia.
1T is an established fact,
writes James Sprunt in the "North
Carolina Booklet" for February 10,
1902, stated by both Northern and
Southern authorities, that the
'"Banshee" saved the Army Of
Northern Virginia from starva
ton"
BY the spring Of 1864, Whining
ton was the only port through
which blockade runners could bring
cargo to the Coufecaracy.
Some vessels ran between VIII
mington and the West Indies with
lhe regularity of mail boats" re-
ports Sprunt, who was once
purser on the Confederate steamer
Lillian.
John Harden, in his book OF
North Carolina historical tales and
legends "The DEVILS Tramping
Ground, recounts that "the block
ade runners sustained the Lost
Cause after it was indeed lost"
The blockade runners were 400
to 700 ton sidewheel steamers, rig
ged as fore and aft schooners, and
had from one to three tunnels.
Most of them were about 200 feet
long and drew from to II feet
they could negotiate narrow chan
nels and shallow coastal waters
with ease. They brought in clothes,
food, gunpowder, guns, medicine,
some money-and in one tragic in
stance, yellow fever when the
steamer Kate" arrived from Mas
sau,
Some of the wrecks are located
as follows: off Carolina Beach, the
"Beauregard"; near New Inlet, the
Modern Greece; Frying Pan
Shoals, the "Antonica"; Baldhead
(Smith's) Island; the Ella; Fort
Caswell, the "Spunky" and the
"Georgiana McCaw" (whose pilot
was murdered); near Wrightsville
and Masonboro, the "Hebe" and
the Dee, and the Fanny and
Jenny; near Lockwood Folly In
let, the "Elizabeth'' and the
Ranger
Writes Harden in "The DEVILS
Ground" University of
North Carolina Press:
each barnacle-clad derelict rep
resents an amazing page in the
South's famous-an unique
fight of the COS. Unless these
ghosts are moved, they will be
there, snuggled against the white
corrugated ocean bottom, for CEN
turtles to come.
"They were made of thick, rug
ged iron, which does not corrode
like steel in salt water this
battered lump of iron and junk
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