Smallest vessels to run the blockade?

[sawpatin]

I guess the question's in the title: I'm curious to get some idea of the smallest known vessels engaged in blockade running during the war, as well as what sort of cargoes they were involved in carrying. I had seen mention of blockade runners sometimes bringing in low-weight/high value luxury items for the civilian markets, so I got curious...

 

[DaveBrt]

Probably the smallest runners were sailing schooners, usually using small rivers. I have seen the cargo lists for several of them and they are all loads of common supplies needed by the people in the area where the runner was landing his cargo -- salt, coal, iron fittings/bars/grates, cloth, etc. The most frequent use of schooners appears to have been the Gulf states, with runs to Mexico.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Technically, even rowboats were running the blockade if they were going from point to point on the coast. (This is an often-overlooked feature of the blockade; it wasn't just about stopping imports and exports, but also internal coastal trade of any sort.)

 

[sawpatin]

Probably the smallest runners were sailing schooners, usually using small rivers. I have seen the cargo lists for several of them and they are all loads of common supplies needed by the people in the area where the runner was landing his cargo -- salt, coal, iron fittings/bars/grates, cloth, etc. The most frequent use of schooners appears to have been the Gulf states, with runs to Mexico.

Would you have any specifics (tonnage, length, beam, etc.) for any of these schooners you've come across?

Technically, even rowboats were running the blockade if they were going from point to point on the coast. (This is an often-overlooked feature of the blockade; it wasn't just about stopping imports and exports, but also internal coastal trade of any sort.)

Good point. I guess, for the purpose of this thread, I'm asking about vessels which made the run from a point outside the CSA or USA.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

"Schooner" refers more to the rig than to the size, but of course it was a rig typical of smaller vessels. I think they could be as light as 80 tons displacement and around 100' x 22', but many were somewhat larger than that.

 

[sawpatin]

"Schooner" refers more to the rig than to the size

Yes, of course... sorry maybe I didn't word my last question correctly.

I think they could be as light as 80 tons displacement and around 100' x 22', but many were somewhat larger than that.

Thanks, I could imagine those dimensions on something like a converted racing yacht...

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Yes, of course... sorry maybe I didn't word my last question correctly.



Thanks, I could imagine those dimensions on something like a converted racing yacht...

Like the America, perhaps?

 

[sawpatin]

Like the America, perhaps?

Haha cheers, I knew that's what I was thinking of when I typed that reply, just couldn't remember the darn name of the vessel

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

That's a fun one. Many don't know that, after her career as a blockade runner, she was scuttled, raised, put into service by the Union as a blockader and then as a Naval Academy training ship... and then was purchased by none other than Benjamin "Beast" F. Butler as his personal yacht after the war!

 

[DaveBrt]

Here is the cargo list of one schooner that ran into Texas:

Date of letter: Sept 29th 1863
to Col W. R. Bradfute
Comdg at Indianola (Tex)

Orders the QM and CS to buy the cargo of the schooner "Lizzie
Beacon" and detail who will get what and why. The cargo is listed as:

20 Bbls Whiskey (for Medical Dept)
40 Coils of Rope
25 Bags of coffee
180 Kegs of nails
75 Boxes argyle Bitters
4 Cases Assd Shoes
2 " Stats
2 " Assd Mdse

Signed by
Magruder

 

[sawpatin]

Thanks @DaveBrt , I wonder if there's any info out there of Lizzie Beacon's specs...

You mentioned these blockade runners coming up from Mexico. Do you know what ports in Mexico they usually loaded their cargoes from?

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

If you're not already aware of it, you might want to check out William Watson's memoirs, Adventures of a Blockade Runner. He skippered the very sorts of small runners we're talking about in the Gulf. Plus, it's a great read.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention forum member @AndyHall 's Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast. Also a great read!

 

[DaveBrt]

Thanks @DaveBrt , I wonder if there's any info out there of Lizzie Beacon's specs...

You mentioned these blockade runners coming up from Mexico. Do you know what ports in Mexico they usually loaded their cargoes from?

I know nothing about Lizzie Beacon herself. The ports used were up and down the Gulf coast, but trying to stay away from the blockaders at the mouth of the Rio Grande.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Sirs, an excellent book that covers this topic and that of @Carronade 's thread https://civilwartalk.com/threads/blockade-running-to-florida.162983/ is 'Northern Naval Superiority and the Economics of the American Civil War' by David G. Surdam. As @Mark F. Jenkins posted, the importance of intra-Confederacy maritime shipping can not be overstated. As more of this form of transportation was denied to the South, greater stress was placed upon land-bound logistical systems, a burden that became onerous as the war continued as @DaveBrt has posted many times...

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[AndyHall]

I don't have a lot to add to the very good responses here so far. @DaveBrt's manifest from LIZZIE BEACON (No. 10 above) is really useful, not only as an example of the inbound cargo -- none of it military stores or munitions -- that was nonetheless effectively commandeered by the Confederate Army, undoubtedly making payment in scrip at well-below-market price. Blockade running masters trying to make their profit sometimes had almost as much incentive to avoid Confederate military officials as they did the Yankees.

The historical record on small, sailing runners tends to be very spotty, and it's hard to get much in the way of hard numbers. But I'm certain that in the Gulf of Mexico, with its innumerable bays, inlets, barrier islands and the like, that small sailing craft like LIZZIE BEACON carried more in and out in aggregate than the larger, better-documented steam runners did.

 

[leftyhunter]

Thanks @DaveBrt , I wonder if there's any info out there of Lizzie Beacon's specs...

You mentioned these blockade runners coming up from Mexico. Do you know what ports in Mexico they usually loaded their cargoes from?

I have a book at home about the Union Naval Blockade off Florida. I forgot the title. Quite a few small blockade runners traveled from Havana to the Florida Keys and South East Florida.
Leftyhunter

 

[georgew]

I have a book at home about the Union Naval Blockade off Florida. I forgot the title. Quite a few small blockade runners traveled from Havana to the Florida Keys and South East Florida.
Leftyhunter

There were reports of sloops and schooners operating from very small ports in Texas taking out 3-5 bales of cotton.

 

[sawpatin]

Quite a few small blockade runners traveled from Havana to the Florida Keys and South East Florida.

Ah yeah, I've heard of Havana and Nassau both commonly used by blockade runners. I hadn't heard as much about Mexico, so the post by @DaveBrt got me curious, particularly as Mexico itself was in the middle of a war at the time, and I imagine the French navy would have had a presence on the east coast there. Not sure what their attitude was to ships leaving Mexico to supply the Confederacy (assuming they were found out...)

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

In fact, for at least part of that time, the French were blockading the Mexican coast. This made the approach to Brownsville/Matamoros on the Rio Grande rather tricky for everybody, since the French were okay with running the Union blockade into Texas, but they wanted to stop traffic headed into Mexico; the Union was okay with running the French blockade into Mexico, but they wanted to stop traffic into Texas; and the blockade runners had two sets of blockaders to dodge. (In their favor, though, was the fact that both blockading fleets were on the far end of a long supply chain, and the jurisdictional difficulties could cause confusion that operated in the runners' favor.)

 

[AndyHall]

I haven't found a mention of LIZZIE BEACON in the usual places, including the list of U.S.-registered vessels at New Orleans in the 1850s and '60s, Lloyd's Register (thinking she might have been "godfathered" to British registry), or newspapers. It's a good bet that LIZZIE BEACON wasn't her original name, and she probably didn't carry it very long.