Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 15.pdf/96

 Blockades. stone-laden ships sunk at Charleston did no permanent damage to the port, and before the war closed the hulks broke up, the har bor being almost filled with floating timbers. It was quickly felt, however, that only an adequate fleet could render the blockade ef fective, and in response to the ceaseless ac tivity of the dockyards, the northern war ships multiplied with marvelous rapidity. The blockade grew strict/ Gradually the pressure of diminished imports began to tell on the resources of the Southern States; iron machinery and drugs became scarce. In Richmond, a yard of ordinary cotton goods which had been sold at 121-2 cents brought more than that number of dollars; a pair of French gloves fetched $150; and the price of salt went up to $i per pound. The export trade, too, was being slowly stran gled; immense stores of cotton and tobacco lay waiting shipment at every port. A bale of cotton worth $40 at Charleston would have brought $200 at New York; an<l some idea of the price it might have yielded in Europe may be obtained from a consideration of the fact that half a mil lion of English cotton workers were subsist ing only upon charity. But the war sent trade into new channels. Nassau, the capital of New Providence, one of the Bahamas group, became one huge depot for the goods which sought a market in the forbidden ports. Articles of household economy and of field equipment lay piled in heterageneous masses on her docks, the cot ton which had escaped the grasp of the Fed erals lay in her warehouses for reshipment to Europe; her coal stores overflowed with the mineral which was to feed the blockadfrunners lying at anchor in the bay, and the patois of every seafaring people in Europe could be daily heard upon the quays. Hardly less numerous and varied were the groups of sailors, merchants, adventurers and spies, who discussed the fortunes of the war at Hamilton, in the Bermudas.

Blockade-running had now become a busi ness speculation. But the great bulk of the trade was in very few hands, for the risks were great, and the capital involved was large. The initial cost of a blockade-runner was heavy, and the officers were highly paid. A pilot well acquainted with the port to be attempted, often demanded $5000 for his ser vices; and besides all this, it must be remem bered that not above one trip out of four was successful. It is computed that in three years there were built or despatched from Scotland alone no less than no swift steamers spec ially designed for the adventurous trade with the Confederate ports. Perhaps the swiftest was the Lamb, which attained a speed of about 163-4 knots per hour (19 miles.) A careful observer might have guessed the char acter of the enterprise for which a blockaderunner was designed by a scrutiny of her build. Two taper masts, and a couple of short smoke-stacks were all that appeared above the deck; her object was to glide in the darkness past her watchers, and the tall spars of a heavily-rigged ship would have been too conspicuous a mark for eager eyes. Her hull was painted white, for experience was then believed to show that on dark nights or in thick weather that color most easily escaped detection. Although she had considerable stowage-room, her draught was light, and she was propelled by side wheels, in order that she might turn readily in narrow or shal low waters. To aid the war-vessels in captur ing and destroying light cruisers such as this, the government built twenty-three small gun boats. They, too, drew but little water, and rarely exceeded 500 tons burden. For arma ment they carried one eleven-inch pivot gun and three howitzers, two of twenty-four pounds, and one of twenty pounds, wellchosen weapons for the -work they had to do. Their weak point was their rate of speed, which did not amount to more than nine or ten knots an hour. There was so much in blockade-running