Clyde built Iona I

Waterloo50

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I'm not sure if this image has been posted on the Naval forum before but I thought that it may be of interest. I found the article tucked away at the bottom of a piece which was written about the blockade runner Agnes E Fry.
The Iona I operated on the Glasgow to the Highlands passenger route before it was purchased by Confederate agents. But it never reached the war as it sank in the Clyde near Gourock following a collision with another ship in 1862.
This model was made by the Glasgow Museum.
 
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The Iona 2 the sister ship of Iona I was also purchased as a blockade runner but it also suffered a similar fate. What I find interesting is that there is still speculation today about her 'Secret Cargo'.
The Iona II was lost in 1864 on its way to America where it was to embark on its new occupation as a Confederate blockade-runner during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

The Iona II started life as a fast ferry paddle steamer for the Clyde. When it was built in 1863 it was fitted with a specially designed twin cylinder oscillating engine that was reputed to have given it a top speed of 24 knots.

The ship was bought by Charles Hopkins Boster of Richmond, Virginia, but on its way to cross the Atlantic it sank east of Lundy on the 2nd February 1864. Following its loss the wreck was reported to have been heavily salvaged, although it is still unknown what the salvors were looking for and what they may have recovered.

last year I was fortunate enough to travel to Lundy and see a few of the Iona's salvaged parts. The wreck is now protected by English Heritage and Wessex Archaeology but the good news is that for a small fee you can now dive the wreck.

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Lithograph of the 'Iona II' from Illustrated London News 12 September 1863
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Diver over the aft boilers of the 'Iona II' wreck © James Wright
 
That's a classic Clyde steamer type. They were originally developed to operate across the Irish Sea and on short runs coastwise, making fast passages with passengers and light cargo. This proved to be almost ideal for blockade running.

Will o' the Wisp:

3932578793_199648a8a2_o.jpg
 
That's a classic Clyde steamer type. They were originally developed to operate across the Irish Sea and on short runs coastwise, making fast passages with passengers and light cargo. This proved to be almost ideal for blockade running.

Will o' the Wisp:

3932578793_199648a8a2_o.jpg
I'm wondering about the men like Charles Hopkins Boster of Richmond who paid for these steamers, did they pay for these out of their own pocket and if they did were they ever compensated for the loss of the boat and cargo. Also, if someone purchased a ship at what point do they take ownership, was it the owners responsibility to arrange a crew for his new purchase before it set sail from Britain? would I be right in assuming that Confederate agents would have been responsible for making all the necessary arrangements.

Sorry about all of the questions but I can't really find anything specific on the internet.
 
_88537715_model.jpg


I'm not sure if this image has been posted on the Naval forum before but I thought that it may be of interest. I found the article tucked away at the bottom of a piece which was written about the blockade runner Agnes E Fry.
The Iona I operated on the Glasgow to the Highlands passenger route before it was purchased by Confederate agents. But it never reached the war as it sank in the Clyde near Gourock following a collision with another ship in 1862.
This model was made by the Glasgow Museum.

that looks really fast, but alas no guns
 
that looks really fast, but alas no guns

Blockade runners were [almost] never armed. For one thing, they needed the additional load for cargo; for another, they could have been seized under piracy laws or as enemy combatants if they offered active resistance... as it was, if the crew and officers were demonstrably English (as they were a lot of the time), they'd soon (at least moderately soon) be on a boat back to England if they were caught.
 
Blockade runners were [almost] never armed. For one thing, they needed the additional load for cargo; for another, they could have been seized under piracy laws or as enemy combatants if they offered active resistance... as it was, if the crew and officers were demonstrably English (as they were a lot of the time), they'd soon (at least moderately soon) be on a boat back to England if they were caught.

i know that
 
One of the more interesting examples of the captured-runner-in-Union-service was the Margaret and Jessie, originally built as the Douglas for the Liverpool-Isle of Man run. After capture, she was armed and renamed USS Gettysburg, with Lt. Roswell Hawkes Lamson in command. Lamson was one of the more derring-do young officers in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, along with friend William Barker Cushing; a collection of his letters were edited and published by James M. and Patricia McPherson as Lamson of the Gettysburg, a good read.
 
Historians reveal secrets of UK gun-running which lengthened the American civil war by two years. It demonstrates that Britain’s neutrality was, in reality, a complete sham,” said Dr Graham, the author of a major book on the Civil War gun-runners, Clyde Built: The Blockade Runners of the American Civil War.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...-american-civil-war-by-two-years-9557937.html
Graham estimates in Clydebuilt that about 20 captured Clyde-built runners were bought into the U.S. Navy and put out on the blockade.

Takes one, to catch one.
 
I'm wondering about the men like Charles Hopkins Boster of Richmond who paid for these steamers, did they pay for these out of their own pocket and if they did were they ever compensated for the loss of the boat and cargo. Also, if someone purchased a ship at what point do they take ownership, was it the owners responsibility to arrange a crew for his new purchase before it set sail from Britain? would I be right in assuming that Confederate agents would have been responsible for making all the necessary arrangements.

Wealthy Southerners often invested in blockade runners, either in individual ships or as part of a consortium that operated multiple vessels. One example of the latter was the European Trading Company, that was organized as a joint effort by three other, existing businesses — H. O. Brewer company of Mobile, the UK banking house of J.H. Schroeder and Co. of Manchester, and Emile Erlanger in Paris. The European Trading Company was organized specifically to run cotton out of Mobile to Cuba, and operated at least four steamships for that purpose. The most famous of these (and most successful) was Denbigh, that was lost at Galveston in late May 1865.

In the case of the European Trading Company, each partner brought to the table some critical element. Erlanger had issued about a bazillion dollars £3 million worth of cotton bonds, that could only be converted into cash what's they were exchanged for cotton in the Confederacy itself (i.e., collected at a southern port). Schroeder was the British banking house that sold Erlanger bonds in the UK. And Brewer, of course, had the business and commercial contacts in Mobile to make the project work.

In those cases where Southerners did own an interest in blockade running ships, it was almost always masked by the use of straw purchasers and intermediate companies, so that the true owner of the ship could not be easily traced. For that reason, it's sometimes easier to identify owners of ships based on private correspondence here in the US, then tracing their official records in their countries of registry. The vast majority of blockade runners were registered as foreign vessels, typically British.
 
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There was also a process known as "godfathering," in which an American -- in the Confederacy or, in theory, in the nothern states -- owner could obtain British registry (and thereby neutral status) for his vessel. Here it is described by William Watson, a Scotsman who'd lived in Louisiana before the war and took up blockade-running under sail after his discharge from the Confederate Army:

To effect this the usual way was to procure a British subject to assume the
ownership, or stand godfather, as it was called, and a bill of sale was made
out transferring the vessel to him, and if the transfer was made within the
United States, the British Consul granted a provisional register to take the
vessel to a British port.

The British subject, or godfather, granted back to the real American
owner letters or power of attorney to do what he pleased with the vessel,
so that it often happened that some British subject—often a clerk or lad
in a shipping-office—was nominal owner of several vessels…[As] a
provisional register holds good for only six months, it was necessary to send
the vessel at once to a British port, to be entered upon the British shipping list,
and obtain a permanent register and official number.

The vessel was generally loaded with American goods, and dispatched to
some British port, where the goods were sold cheap for specie, and the vessel
put under a permanent register, and that port then became the hailing port
of the vessel. This was the cause of the West India market being at that
time glutted with American goods.
 
Wealthy Southerners often invested in blockade runners, either in individual ships or as part of a consortium that operated multiple vessels.one example of the latter was the European Trading Company, that was organized as a joint effort by three other, existing businesses — H. O. Brewer company of Mobile, the UK banking house of J.H. Schroeder and Co. of Manchester, and Emile Erlanger in Paris. The European Trading Company was organized specifically to run cotton out of Mobile to Cuba, and operated at least four steamships for that purpose. The most famous of these (and most successful) was Denbigh, that was lost at Galveston in late May 1865.

In the case of the European Trading Company, each partner brought to the table some critical element. Erlanger had issued about a bazillion dollars worth of cotton bonds, that could only be converted into cash what's they were exchanged for cotton in the Confederacy itself (i.e., collected at a southern port). Schroeder was the British banking house that sold Erlanger bonds in the UK. And Brewer, of course, had the business and commercial contacts in Mobile to make the project work.
Thanks Andy,
So it looks like some of these wealthy Southerners were not investing in the blockade for the betterment of the Confederacy but more for their own self interest/wealth, obviously they would want the Confederacy to succeed but would it be fair to say that the exchange of cotton for bonds wasn't used to fund the war effort. I asked earlier about compensation for lost ships but I'm guessing that considering the blockade runners appeared to be merchant vessels going about their business any loss could be legitimately covered by insurance. It would be difficult for an insurance company to argue that a ship was being used for blockade running,
 
There would not normally be any compensation for lost ships. Any vessel running the blockade was uninsurable, and the policies that were written during that period (as I understand) had explicit exclusionary clauses related to blockade running activity. High risk, high reward.

The vast majority of blockade running efforts were undertaken by private investors, and were looking to make a profit. That's just the reality. Late in the war there were a handful of runners that were purchased and outfitted by the Confederate government, and commanded by CS naval officers (e.g. Owl, commanded by John Newland Maffitt). But those were very much the exception rather than the rule.

Initially the Confederacy relied on the twin motives of patriotism and profit to encourage merchants to bring in necessary military supplies, but that was never sufficient. In early 1864 the Confederacy passed a law requiring that half of all inbound and outbound cargoes be consigned to the Confederate government. That helped, but still it was not enough. Right through to the end, profit overwhelmed patriotism, and large amounts of civilian goods with no conceivable military or government application made up a sizable part of inbound cargoes to Confederate ports.

It would be difficult for an insurance company to argue that a ship was being used for blockade running.

Not really. The ship would either have been captured en flagrante by Federal forces and sent to a prize court, or wrecked somewhere on the Confederate coastline. Either way, it's walking, quacking, and swimming like a duck.
 
that looks really fast, but alas no guns
They were often very fast, by the standards of the day. Tom Taylor, an Englishman who served as sort of a field operations manager for the Anglo-Confederate Trading Company, wrote in his memoir that when he decided to sell Will o' the Wisp (that had proved to be mechanically unreliable and structurally weak), he had her taken on a trial run with potential buyers, and had the safety valves on the boilers locked down maximize steam pressure. He claimed she did 17 1/2 knots on that occasion.

Denbigh did, IIRC, 14 1/2 knots on her builder's trial in 1860, although she was not built as a blockade runner.

Such speeds were attainable for short bursts, but 10-12 knots was more routine. The most successful runners usually relied more on stealth than speed. Denbigh, that completed eleven successful round voyages in and out of the Confederacy, was reportedly only capable of about 8 1/2 knots by the time she was running between Havana and Mobile in 1864.
 
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