Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/168

 HiO Southern Historical Society Papers.

New Providence, one of the Bahamas, and it is the chief town and capital of the group. All of the islands are surrounded by coral- reefs and shoals, through which are channels, more or less intricate. The distance from Charleston to Nassau is about 500 miles, and from Wilmington about 550. Practically they were equi-distant; for blockade-runners bound for either port, in order to evade the cruisers lying in wait off Abaco, were compelled to give that headland a wide berth by keeping well to the eastward. The wharves of Nassau were piled high with cotton during the war, and huge warehouses were stored full of supplies for the Confederacy. At times the harbor was crowded with lead-colored, short-masted, rakish-looking steamers; the streets alive with the bustle and activity of the day, swarmed with drunken revellers at night. Almost every nationality on earth was represented there, the higher wages ashore and afloat tempting adventurers of the baser sort, and the prospect of enormous profits offering equally strong inducements to capitalists of a speculative turn. Monthly wages of a sailor on board a blockade-runner was $100 in gold, and $50 a bounty at the end of a successful trip; and this, under favorable circumstances, would be accomplished in seven days.

A GOOD RECORD.

The captains and pilots sometimes received as much as $5,000, perquisites. On board the government steamers the crew, which was shipped abroad, and under the articles regulating the " merchant marine" received the same wages as were paid on board the other blockade-runners, but the captains and subordinate officers of the government steamers who belonged to the Confederate States Navy, and the pilots who were detailed from the army for this service re- ceived their pay in gold. There is a singular fact connected with the blockade-running vessels which speaks well for the Confederate States naval officers. Though many commanded a large number of these vessels, yet down to August 16, 1864, and perhaps later, only one blockade-running vessel was lost.

The Cape Fear pilots have long maintained a standard of excel- lence in their proffession most creditable to them as a class, and as individuals. The story of their wonderful skill and bravery in the time of the Federal blockade has never been written, for the survi- vors are modest men, and time has obliterated from their memories many incidents of this extraordinary epoch. Amidst impenetrable darkness, without lightship or beacon, the narrow and closely watched