500 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

required. ‘They were never exploded, however. I tried to ex-
plode them when the fort was evacuated, but did not succeed,
as the batteries would not work. These torpedoes were large,
carrying 400 pounds of powder. I think the Federal Govern-
ment took them up after the war.

“Just before or during the attack on Fort Anderson, in Jan-
uary, 1865, a number of so-called floating torpedoes were sent
to Fort Anderson to be placed between the fort and the fleet of
the enemy, and were so placed by me under order of General
Hagood, commanding at that place. These torpedoes were at-
tached to floats of just sufficient buoyancy to keep them near
the surface of the water and were provided with sensitive fuses,
so that if touched they would explode. Twenty or more of them
were taken down the river at night and located, as I have said,
at different points in the channel. I think that a vessel, prob-
ably the transport Thorn, was blown up by one of these torpe-
does after we evacuated the fort, and the rest were removed by
the Federal Government. There were no torpedo boats used
in the Cape Fear.”

Since the above information was furnished by Captain Mar-
tin, I learn that during the war a number of torpedoes were
chained and anchored by the Confederates in the following
named channels of Cape Fear River, leaving open a limited space
for the passage of blockade runners under the pilotage of spe-
cially detailed men who were entrusted with the secret knowl-
edge of these mine fields. Capt. E. D. Williams, the present
harbor master of the port of Wilmington, was one of the persons
entrusted with this secret defense against the Federal fleet. He
tells me that the first mine was planted three miles below Wil-
mington at a point in the ship channel opposite Hart’s Vine-
yard, the second was at Orton Cove, near Fort Anderson at Old
Brunswick. This one blew up the Federal transport Thorn.
The third mine was anchored outside New Inlet Rip near Fort
Fisher. A fourth and last one was outside the Rip near Fort
Caswell.

A number of these torpedoes were brought up with the anchors
of merchant vessels for two years after the war, but no prema-
ture explosions occurred. A torpedo boat named General Whit-
ing was brought into the Cape Fear the last year of the war by
a blockade runner, from England, but proved to be too small
for effective use. At the end of the war she was sunk in the
river near Point Peter.

Peace Restored

RESUMPTION OF CAPE FEAR COMMERCE.

After the four years’ war, the trade and commerce of the
Cape Fear gradually returned to normal conditions. At first

there was a large coastwise trade by sailing vessels, chiefly
schooners of 150 to 600 tons, and a larger volume of business
direct with Europe and the West Indies in foreign bottoms, con-

sisting of brigs, barques, and sometimes of full-rigged ships, of
British, German, and Scandinavian origin. The exports were

naval stores—spirits turpentine, rosin, tar—and some cotton to
Europe, and lumber to the West Indies.

For many years after the war Wilmington maintained first
place in the turpentine and lumber trade, and there were as
many as a hundred sailing vessels in port at one time. As the
cotton trade increased it was taken up by this class of vessels:
but In 1881 the new era of steam appeared in the arrival of the
British steamer Barnesmore, chartered by Alexander Sprunt &
Son, which loaded a cargo of 3,458 bales of cotton, 673 casks
of spirits turpentine, and 550 barrels of rosin. Much ado was
made of this occasion, and a banquet and speech-making accen-
tuated its importance to the community; but in his letter of
acknowledgment to the president of the Chamber of Commerce
under whose auspices the event was celebrated, Captain Teen:
ery, of the Barnesmore, regretted to say that the depth of water

a 1 0,300 bales of cotton valued
a milion and a half dollars, yet it caused scarcely a ripple

of remark in these progressive times; but the contrast of the
Barnesmore with the Holtie is an object lesson in the develop-
ment of Cape Fear commerce, The Barnesmore’s draft wags
14 feet. The draft of the Holtie is 20 feet, with seven to eight

sg to spare underfoot in the river channel, which now shows
to 28 feet from Wilmington to the sea.

[501]