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Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

States. On February 5, 1862, she completed the loading of a
cargo of cotton, rosin, and tobacco at Wilmington, under her

new name, Annie Childs, named for the wife of Col. | a
Childs, and proceeded through the blockade by Main Bar, arriv-
ing at Liverpool, via F ayal, Madeira, and Queenstown, [reland,
early in March. Her supply of coal was quite exhausted when
she sighted Queenstown, and she barely reached that port of
call by burning part of her rosin cargo with spare spars cut in
short lengths. Captain Bulloch said that she was badly found
for so long a voyage, but she weathered’ a heavy northwest gale,

and proved herself to be a fine sea boat. I am informed that she
returned to other successful ventures in blockade r

the name of Victory.

The fleet of runners was augmented by old-fashioned steamers,
partly from the Northern ports, bought by foreigners and sent
via neutral ports, where they went through the process of “white-
washing,” a change of name, ownership, registry, and flag. A
much greater number, however, came from abroad; a few of
these formerly having been fast mail boats, but the majority
freighters on short routes in Europe, bought at big prices for

eager speculators, who were tempted by the enormous profits of
blockade running.

A few of those of the better class became famous, as the
North Carolina steamer Advance, before known as the Lord
Clyde ; the Confederate steamer R. E. Lee, formerly the Giraffe ;
and the Lady Davis, previously the Cornubia. Some of the
others were the Alice, Fanny, Britannia, Ella, Pet, Sirius,
Orion, Antonica, Hansa, Calypso, Duoro, Thistle, Scotia, City
of Petersburg, Old Dominion, Index, Caledonia, Dolphin, Geor-
guna McCall, Modern Greece, Hebe, Dee, Wave Vueen,
Granite City, Stonewall J ackson, Victory, Flora, Beauregard
Luby, Margaret and J essie, Hagle, Gertrude, Charleston, Ban-
shee, Minna, and Eugenie, all of which were more or less
successful.

The beach for miles north and south of Bald Head is marked
still by the melancholy wrecks of swift and graceful steamers

unning under

       

Blockade Running AGL

owners. One little beauty, the Siren, a fast boat, numbered

nearly tility voyag ips depended, of

fi es. The success of these ships dep y

vena = filthy ETS upon the skill and coolness of their
)

commanders and pilots. It is noteworthy that those in charge
of Confederate naval officers were, with but one exception, never

taken: but many were captured, sunk, and otherwise lost,
?

through no fault of the brave fellows who penne
The Beauregard and the Venus lie stranded on Caro ina “1 2 ;
the Modern Greece, near New Inlet; the paegest 2 on wae
Pan Shoals; the Ella, on Bald Head; the Spun y a —
Georgiana McCall, on Caswell Beach; the Hebe = “ ter
between Wrightsville and Masonboro. ‘Two ot — =
Lockwood’s Folly Bar; and others, whose names are torgotten,

i en-
are half-buried in the sands, where they may nee ots 2 Z
turies to come. After a heavy storm on the ona "i napa
residents at Carolina Beach and Masonboro Sound have

interesting relics of
icked up along the shore some in
ockas etal which the heaving ocean cal a a
i gard, Venus, Hebe, an ee. -
buried cargoes of the Beauregard, :
hoes, and other wreckage
dles, Nassau bacon, soldiers shoes,
aie en part this flotsam yielded up by Neptune after
nearly fifty years’ soaking in the sea,

The Venus was commanded by a prominent ree of =
Royal Navy on leave of absence, Captain Murray- ynsley,
known by blockade runners as Captain Murray. He is now
an admiral in the British Navy on the retired list. ee beri
great favorite with the prominent people, and especially wi
Colonel Lamb, of Fort Fisher, whose description of the —
naval officer on the bridge of the Venus, running through the

Federal fleet in broad daylight, hotly pursued by the pi
with coat sleeves rolled up to his armpits, but cool and defiant,

is well worth recording. .
The a of the Sascoleda McCall is associated with a =

rible crime—the murder of her pilot. When the pict aid

beached under the fire of the blockaders, Mr. Thomas Vy

  
      
    
   
 
   
   
   
     
 
     
  

 
 

    
   
   
       
    
      
     
    
       
      
        
  
       
 
 
     
   
     
    
    
       
     
      
      
 
 

> he
not go with the retreating crew who sought safety ashore ;

 
  

which had been employed in this perilous enterprise. Some of

the hundred vessels engaged in this traffic ran between Wilming-
ton and the West Indies with the regularity of mail boats, and

some, even of the slowest speed—the Pet, for instance—eluding
the vigilance of the Federal fleet, passed unscathed twenty,
thirty, and forty times, making millions for the fortunate

  
 

he had a large amount of money in gold on board, ar
thought that he remained to secure it. A — oo rushed ii
but found his bloody corpse instead. His skul age sae
by a blow from behind; there was no money on his 3 rapa
Another man was found on board, unhurt, who professed igno-