356 Nortu Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

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 eruisers lying in wait off Abaco, were com-
pelled 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 stowed full
with 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 revelers at night. Almost every
nationality on earth was represented there, the high wages
ashore and afloat tempting adventurers of the baser sort, and
the prospects of enormous profits offering equally strong in-
ducements to capitalists of a speculative turn. Monthly
wages of a sailor on board a blockade-runner were $100 in
gold and $50 bounty at the end of a successful trip and this
under favorable circumstances, would be accomplished in
seven days.

“The captains and pilots sometimes received as much as
$5,000 and 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 cap-
tains 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, received
their pay in gold. There is a singular fact connected with
the blockade-running vessels which speaks well for the Con-
federate States naval officers. Though many commanded a
large number of these vessels, yet down to 16 August, 1864,
and perhaps later, only one blockade-running vessel was lost.”

The Cape Fear pilots have long maintained a standard of
excellence in their profession most creditable to them as aclass
and as individuals. The story of their wonderful skill and
bravery at the time of the Federal blockade has never been