Derelicts: An Account of Ships Lost at Sea in General Commercial Traffic: And a Brief History of Blockade Runners Stranded Along the North Carolina Coast, 1861-1865Sprunt, James
History
Derelicts: An Account of Ships Lost at Sea in General Commercial Traffic: And a Brief History of Blockade Runners Stranded Along the North Carolina Coast, 1861-1865
Sprunt, James
Blockade; Derelicts; North Carolina -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
"It had been a hard week for me, as I had no clothes except what I had
on when we were boarded, my servant very cleverly, as he imagined,
having thrown my portmanteau into the man-of-war's boat when he thought
I was going to be captured, and all I had in the world was the old
serge suit in which I stood. Being without a change and wet through
every day and night for six days consecutively, it is little wonder
that I caught fever and ague, of which I nearly died in Richmond,
and which distressing complaint stuck to me for more than eighteen
months. I shall never forget, on going to a store in Wilmington for a
new rig-out (which by the by cost $1,200), the look of horror on the
storekeeper's face when I told him the coat I had purchased would do if
he cut a foot off it; he thought it such a waste of expensive material."
The Three-Funnel Boats.
In the latter part of the War between the States, the experience of
the blockade runners evolved a superior type of construction for great
speed, shallow depth of hold, and increased furnace draught, for which
three funnels were provided. A very interesting and unusual sight were
these three-funnel boats. I recall their names, _Falcon_, _Flamingo_,
_Condor_, _Ptarmigan_, _Vulture_. Mr. Taylor in his book says that
Admiral Hewett commanded the _Falcon_ on an ill-fated voyage, but I
remember it was the _Condor_ and also that one of the passengers was
the celebrated and unfortunate lady Mrs. "Greenhow" or "Greenough," who
lost her life when the _Condor_ ran aground near the bar. The _Condor_
went to pieces when she was stranded, the crew escaping to the shore.
The "Pevensey."
The last stranded steamer on my list, the _Pevensey_, was probably
named for the Earl of Wilmington, who was also Viscount Pevensey.
Her chief officer, who gave his name to his captors as Joseph Brown,
was undoubtedly Joseph Brown Long, who ran the blockade many times in
the _Cornubia_ as chief officer with Captain Burroughs, and as the
right-hand man of Maj. Norman S. Walker, the Confederate agent at
Bermuda. He was greatly esteemed by all Southerners. I recall his many
kindnesses to me with gratefulness.
I quote in full the official reports of the stranding and destruction
of the _Pevensey_.
_Destruction of the Blockade Runner "Pevensey," June 9, 1864._
(Report of Acting Volunteer Lieutenant Harris,
U.S. Navy.)
"U.S.S. 'New Berne,'
"_Hampton Roads, Va., June 16_.
"Sir: I have the honor to report the stranding, on the 9th instant, of
the blockade runner _Pevensey_ (named _Penversey_ in the extracts April
16, 1864), under the following circumstances:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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