The Blockade Runners
"The Blockade Runners" () is an 1865 novella by Jules Verne. In 1871 it was published in single volume together with novel "A Floating City" as a part of the "Voyages Extraordinaires" series ("The Extraordinary Voyages"). An English translation was published in 1874. Plot introduction. The American Civil War plot centers on the exploits of a British merchant captain named James Playfair who must break the Union blockade of Charleston harbor in South Carolina to trade supplies for cotton and, later in the book, to rescue Halliburtt, the abolitionist journalist father of a young girl held prisoner (the  father, not the girl) by the Confederates. Verne's tale was inspired by reality as many ships were actually lost while acting as blockade runners in and around Charleston in the early 1860s. Adaptations. The book was produced as a radio play of the same name in 2006.