Blockade Runners Research Articles

Jules Verne’s Use of Civil War Technology

Abstract The U.S. Civil War was fought during an era of technological innovation and new inventions, including monster cannons, a dramatic evolution of ferrous metallurgy, iron-hulled and ironclad battleships, steel-hulled blockade runners, submarines, balloons, and even medical rubber implants. Indeed, the Civil War offered a Victorian-era engineering laboratory and proving grounds for future technology. Jules Verne proved to be a literary engineer applying the emerging science of the Civil War to his futuristic engineering tales. Verne used the advancing Civil War cannon technology for his futuristic moonshot; he foresaw the steel revolution in shipbuilding with the success of steel-hulled blockade runners of the Civil War; and he used steel for his science fiction submarines, ships, and machines to explore the oceans, the Arctic, Africa, and India. Verne chronicled, studied, and published about the Civil War and its technology in his works, which offer a new dimension for Civil War enthusiasts.

John F. Messer, A Scottish Blockade Runner in the American Civil War: Joaness Wyllie of the Steamer Ad-Vance by Louis Arthur Norton

John F. Messer, A Scottish Blockade Runner in the American Civil War: Joaness Wyllie of the Steamer Ad-Vance by Louis Arthur Norton

A Compendium of Projectiles Recovered from The Battlefield of the Last Major Battle of the War Between the States: Relics from Spanish Fort, Alabama

March, 1865 began in Spanish Fort, Alabama as did countless months of March before. A breeze coming off of the Gulf of Mexico and into Mobile Bay brought a respite from what might otherwise be an uncomfortably warm month in the area immediately east of Mobile, Alabama. For several weeks, incessant rains made every road a quagmire. Even though it had been sometime since Confederate Navy forces and their accompanying blockade runners had been foiled by the Union Navy in the Battle of Mobile Bay, life in Mobile had been largely unchecked by the war, the people unbowed, and the city remained a bastion of Confederate influence. Union forces recognized Mobile’s position of influence and its hopes to end the War Between the States centered largely on the defeat of the city and region. Many of Spanish Fort’s earthworks built to protect Mobile, still stand. Countless artifacts have been recovered and continue to be recovered. Some of those artifacts, a reminder of the grim, last major battle of the American Civil War, fought from March 27–April 8, 2023 are documented here.

A Latter-day Saint Apostle's Perception of the Southern Bazaar of Liverpool, October 1864

A Latter-day Saint Apostle's Perception of the Southern Bazaar of Liverpool, October 1864

Вербализация телесности в блокадных текстах

Modern philology is increasingly turning to interdisciplinary problems, which include corporality, which is studied at the intersection of biology, medicine, cognitive science and philosophy. At the same time, the interest of linguistics in the conceptualization and verbalization of bodily and psychological individual experience leads to the need to study ego-documents that tell about the most difficult, traumatic life situations (hunger, war, disability, fatal illness, loss of loved ones, etc.). The purpose of the work is to explication of the specifics of the perception of the corporality of a resident of besieged Leningrad through the verbalization of one’s own and others’ bodily experience. The number of specific elements of the conceptualization of corporality (hunger, dystrophy, cold, trauma, etc.) were revealed. An analysis of the memories of the blockade survivors convincingly proves that the body was perceived by the starving inhabitants as deformed, destroyed and striving for inevitable death. Reflection on the body and corporality inevitably leads to the realization of the rigid connection of corporality with the psyche and morality. Such specific forms of comprehension and verbalization of the physicality of blockade runners as hunger trauma, winter trauma, and alienation of the body are identified and analyzed. The analysis of the traumatic bodily experience of the inhabitants of the besieged Leningrad can serve as a further development of linguistic studies of both corporality and traumatic experience.

THE STATUS OF THE DOUBLE EPIGRAPH TO THE POEM “YOUR WAY”

Epigraphs to the works of O. F. Bergholz have not been studied specifically until now. The two-part epigraph to the poem “Your Way” (1945) was not approved for publication during the poet’s lifetime and was first published in 1989. In the initial position of the epigraph is a biblical quote from Psalm 136, which begins with the words “If I forget you, Jerusalem...”; in the second — the line “Die and become!” from the poem “Blissful longing” by Goethe. The biblical quote was a precedent text and a core attitude for the poetess long before the poem “Your Way” was written. The besieged Leningrad was interpreted as the “Leningrad Jordan.” The image of the besieged Jordan (later excluded by editors and/or censors) is the most important sign indicating the semantic connection of the biblical epigraph with the text of the poem. Bergholz built a single spiritual space and set the “Jerusalem” — “Leningrad Jordan” vector; familiarization with the “burning” waters of the river meant an assimilation of the bitter blockade experience. At the same time, Bergholz built a vertical context: the sacred waters of the Jordan symbolized the rebirth to a new life (baptism), the self-discovery of man. The image of the Leningrad font correlated with the epigraph from Goethe, in which the theme of initiation is explicitly stated. The author of the article suggests that epigraph “Die and become!” was intended by Bergholz for the poem “February Diary” (1942), but was excluded from the text by A. P. Grishkevich, head of the press sector of the Leningrad City Committee of the CPSU(b). Goethe’s dictum has become the motto of the poetess since the time of the “Averbach case” repressions (1937). The double epigraph gave a semantic and philosophical perspective to the poem “Your Way.” The editorial intrusion (the exclusion of epigraphs and lines about the “Leningrad Jordan”) destroyed the connection of the title with the epigraph and the text, and impoverished the perception of the poem by contemporary readers. The two-part epigraph correlates with Bergholz’s entire blockade narrative, emphasizing the themes of memory and initiation as the spiritual formation of a Leningrad blockade runner.

"Sail Ho!": A Civil War Surgeon and the Texas Blockade

"Sail Ho!":A Civil War Surgeon and the Texas Blockade Walter E. Wilson* Click for larger view View full resolution Assistant Surgeon Heber Smith, New Orleans, 1862. Courtesy Sharyl Heber. [End Page 436] On June 14, 1863, the U.S. Navy gunboat Itasca was on blockade duty off the Texas coast. That morning, the ship's doctor sat down to write a letter home. His name was Heber Smith, a twenty-three-year-old assistant surgeon. Until its recent discovery by the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg, Texas, Heber's letter had been in private hands since the day it was written. Civil War letters related to the Texas blockade are rare and exciting finds, particularly one with several days of richly detailed content. Heber Smith's letter launches the reader on a roller-coaster ride of wartime emotions ranging from despair, frustration, and exhaustion to exhilaration and hope. He also describes the excitement of chasing and capturing blockade runners. The perceptive doctor addresses many of the broader themes of the American Civil War as seen from the sometimes bloody deck plates of a U.S. Navy warship. Heber's letter offers fresh insight into the personal impact of ineffective military strategies, corruption, death, and infectious diseases that remain relevant in more modern times.1 This article provides the full transcription of Heber Smith's letter, preceded by a brief description of the situation facing the writer and his ship. The letter, written in multiple sittings over five days of a blockading expedition off the South Texas coast, is presented in five parts with an analysis [End Page 437] of the day's events and their relevance to the Civil War in the western Gulf of Mexico. Finally, a conclusion summarizes the colorful careers of the USS Itasca and Dr. Heber Smith. Click for larger view View full resolution Christina Akin Smith. Courtesy Sharyl Heber. Heber addressed the letter to his father, the Reverend Orsamus H. Smith, mother Lucy, and sister Lucia, who all lived in his hometown of Patterson, New York. Other prominent family members mentioned in the letter include his brother and fellow military surgeon Orsamus Jr., his sister Annie, and his wife, the former Christina Akin. Although only an assistant surgeon at the time, Heber Smith became a prominent medical pioneer in his own right. It was his experience in the navy that led him to a distinguished career with the institution that gave rise to the Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).2 At just over five feet, six inches tall and slender, Heber Smith's appearance was unremarkable except for a slightly uneven jawline. It was a distinction he received in June 1861 as a twenty-one-year-old bachelor shortly after joining the navy and reporting to the USS Monticello. In his first month aboard ship, Acting Assistant Surgeon Smith accompanied a small landing party to an island in Virginia's Rappahannock River. After wading ashore, the sailors from the Monticello were set upon by the local Confederate militia. They all beat a hasty retreat to the safety of the boat, but not before Smith and a master's mate were seriously wounded. One of the lead musket balls entered Heber's left cheek, took out a piece of his tongue and several teeth, and exited through the right cheek.3 [End Page 438] Click for larger view View full resolution Unadilla-class gunboat, USS Itasca. US Naval History and Heritage Command NH 52240. Heber was initially sent to Fort Monroe, Virginia, and then to Bellevue Hospital in New York City to recover. He fared better than the master's mate, who died from his wounds. Despite the damage to his now uneven jaw, Christina agreed to marry him. They exchanged vows in New York City on November 6, 1861. Four days later, the navy reappointed Heber as assistant surgeon, and assigned him as the only doctor among the 114 sailors onboard the USS Itasca. This newly constructed gunboat was expected to deploy to the warzone immediately, and it did. Like many military families, Heber and Christina had multiple occasions to wonder whether...

German Supply Ships and Blockade Runners in the Canary Islands in the Second World War

At the start of the Second World War a number of German merchant ships took refuge in the Canary Islands. The German authorities took control of them and some were used as blockade runners and others as supply ships for the German navy. The preparation and departure of these ships was performed with the consent and support of the Spanish government, in contradiction of its obligations as neutral country. The ships based in the Canaries made a small but significant contribution to the German naval war in the Atlantic. Their contribution to U-boat operations was limited but was relatively important for auxiliary cruisers. However, Spain paid a high price for this contribution to the German naval effort in the Atlantic. British suspicion of Spanish collaboration strengthened the diplomatic and economic pressure on the Spanish government and by 1943 the remaining German vessels in the Canaries were prevented from sailing. Using the archives of the German and Spanish authorities, this article outlines the activities of the German supply ships and blockade runners operating from the Canary Islands and demonstrates the difficulties and consequences that Spain faced in its approach to non-belligerence during the Second World War.

Captain James Carlin: Anglo-American Blockade Runner by Colin Carlin

Captain James Carlin: Anglo-American Blockade Runner by Colin Carlin

Fabricating the “Southern Belle”: Assessing the Role of Imported Material Culture in the Confederacy

Confederate society was dependent on a rigidly defined hierarchy that assigned roles and appropriate behavior based on race, gender, and wealth. White, wealthy, southern women were dependent on material culture as a socially acceptable means of self-fashioning and making their status public. The Union naval blockade threatened this practice by preventing Confederate markets from accessing imported, status-affirming goods. The industry of blockade running rose to fill this need, often controversially prioritizing cargo space for civilian, luxury products over necessities for the military. This article examines the artifact assemblages of blockade runner sites off the coasts of Wilmington, North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina through a theoretical framework of agency and costly signaling to make assessments about Confederate identity during the Civil War.

Recruit to Revolution: Adventure and Politics during the Indonesian Struggle for Independence by John Coast

Reviewed by: Recruit to Revolution: Adventure and Politics during the Indonesian Struggle for Independenceby John Coast Howard Federspiel (bio) John Coast. Recruit to Revolution: Adventure and Politics during the Indonesian Struggle for Independence. 2nded. Edited by Laura Noszlopy. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), 2015. 362 pp. John Coast provides us with a true adventure story that moves across countries and continents, centering on Siam (Thailand), Indonesia, and England, with side trips to Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. He tells of meeting important people and others who are less so, from presidents, prime ministers, and high state officials to airplane pilots, mechanics, and even some highly unprincipled characters trying to profit from unsettled political conditions in Southeast Asia. He is at home in Siam, where he keeps a residence, because he likes the lifestyle, has close friends in Bangkok, and is known to many of the country's leading politicians. Although not a dancer himself but rather a connoisseur and impresario, he arranges for a Javanese dance ensemble to visit London, apparently the first in the post-World War II era, and thereby enhances his reputation among the London theater crowd. In the long run he is to become closely identified with theatrical work, especially as an agent and a seeker of talent. But in the adventure recounted in Recruit to Revolution, Coast is committed to assisting the emerging Indonesian state gain its independence, and goes all out in his efforts to help the Indonesians reach that goal. His engagement with the Indonesian cause began during an earlier adventure, when he served with the British army and was taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942 and forced to work on a railroad bridge in Burma. He met and became friends with Indonesian prisoners, learning Malay-Indonesian phrases and becoming familiar with Javanese dance forms and styles. This identification with those prisoners was transformed into sympathy for the Indonesian republican cause at war's end, when he was released by the Japanese and sent home by British army officials. For Coast, it became almost an obsession thereafter to be identified with Indonesian independence in a personal and meaningful way. He never regarded the Dutch effort to regain colonial control over the Indonesian area as anything but an unjustified attempt to reinstitute a system of exploitation for Dutch economic benefit. Consequently, he lambasts the Dutch continually, regarding their efforts as guided by motives totally inimical to the Indonesian populace. On the other hand, he embraces Indonesian officials' corruption, incompetence, and bumbling efforts to govern as understandable and even endearing. He began his service with the Republic of Indonesia as a blockade runner, arranging air flights from southern Siam, usually Songkhla, via Singapore over Bukit Tinggi in Sumatra, and on to Yogyakarta in central Java. The flights had to be unscheduled, as the Dutch patrolled the area and occasionally intercepted them. Because the service was used primarily by businessmen and government officials, the [End Page 193]flights concentrated on passenger service and did not haul much cargo. Coast then moved on to public relations, giving advice to officials of the Republic in Yogyakarta about how to build and exploit sentiment among Europeans concerning the Republic's challenges. Eventually he was allowed to make English-language radio broadcasts and distribute printed flyers. He went abroad to look after the airline situation just prior to the Second Dutch Military Action in late 1948 and, consequently, was not swept up by the Dutch when they invaded Yogyakarta. He became a propagandist for the republican cause the next year—he contacted foreign officials and urged responses against the Dutch military action and campaigned for the release of incarcerated Indonesian officials. In particular, he visited London during this period and coordinated with the Subandrio husband-and-wife team in working for British support for the Republic. He later was part of Indonesia's support-staff delegation at the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference in The Hague (August–November 1949). He returned to Southeast Asia for the final events conveying and marking Indonesian sovereignty at the end of 1949. The list of Indonesians with whom he became acquainted is impressive. He went on an all-day...

The Blockade Runner Denbigh and the Union Navy: Including Glover’s Analysis of the West Gulf Blockade and Archival Materials and Notes by Robert W. Glover, J. Barto Arnold III

The Blockade Runner Denbigh and the Union Navy: Including Glover’s Analysis of the West Gulf Blockade and Archival Materials and Notes by Robert W. Glover, J. Barto Arnold III

The Spanish support for the Third Reich in the Second World War: New considerations about the Etappenorganisation

The goal of this article is to study the great Spain–Portugal supply area as part of the international deployment of the Etappenorganisation before and during the Second World War. To accomplish this objective, the records of the German Naval War Command are analysed to demonstrate three hypotheses: Spain was part of the Etappenorganisation long before the beginning of the war; she played an important role in the preparation of supply vessels and blockade runners, supported by Spanish non-belligerence; the dismantling of the Etappenorganisation in Spain provisionally began in 1942 and continued in the following years.

The Iona II Dive Trail, Building Relationships Through the Protection and Management of Marine Heritage

The Iona II Dive Trail is an example of the developing relationships surrounding groups working together to preserve wrecks for the future. The United Kingdom (U.K.) government service Historic England commissioned Wessex Archaeology, a U.K.-based commercial archaeology company, to develop the dive trail in conjunction with the U.K. diving community to encourage responsible access, an enhanced visitor experience and public engagement with the care and management of U.K. Protected Wrecks. We (the authors) are the Wessex Archaeology project employees; Victoria Cooper was the project manager and Peta Knott was the project archaeologist. The paddle steamer Iona II was lost off Lundy Island, U.K., in 1864 after setting sail to become a blockade runner in the American Civil War. The wreck's history since its rediscovery in 1976 demonstrates the change in attitude to marine heritage from recreational divers, archaeologists and government heritage managers, and the evolution of relationships between these groups.

The Italian Naval War in the Mid-Atlantic: Blockade Runners and Submarines in the Canary Islands (1940–1943)

This article studies the real value of the Canary Islands for the Italian navy not only as an area of submarine operations but also as refuge for the Italian merchant fleet. To verify this hypothesis unpublished Italian, German and Spanish primary sources have been consulted. From information gathered from these sources, it can be seen that Italian submarine patrols in the waters of the Canary Islands were largely unfruitful, but that their main ports concentrated most of the Italian vessels that had taken refuge in the eastern Atlantic and that their potential for supplying Italian submarines deployed in the south Atlantic did not go unnoticed.

Lighting a gen'rous, manly flame: the nostalgia for “dear old Bendigo”

Bendigo is the name of an Australian city with a golden past, an historic reserve centred on a Central Otago ghost town, a Pennsylvanian State Park, and a former All-England champion boxer. The name Bendigo appears on hotel signs, gold dredges and mining claims in several countries, and on the nameplate of a Confederate blockade runner wrecked off North Carolina. More than merely an example of an early global brand, Bendigo acquired a peculiar significance throughout narratives of colonial Australasia with the town remembered in an unusually rapid, unique nostalgiacising process. This article examines the way the name developed and the manner in which the Australian Bendigo emerged through legend, memory, and pioneering mythology to become an assiduously romanticised “Old Bendigo” and how this influenced the perception of people from that town.

Reader’s Choice: Eloquent Story or Musty History?

Reader’s Choice: Eloquent Story or Musty History? Howard Jones (bio) Amanda Foreman. A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War. New York: Random House, 2010. xlvi + 919 pp. Illustrations, maps, dramatis personae, notes, glossary, and index. $35.00 (cloth); $20.00 (paper); e-book. Also published in Britain as A World on Fire: The Epic History of the British in the American Civil War. London: Allen Lane, 2010. Promotional materials and early reviews have hailed Amanda Foreman’s mammoth twelve-years-in-the-making volume as a blockbuster account of a subject that has long been missing in the literature—that is, in the words of the subtitle, “Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War.” Shortly after its initial publication in the United Kingdom (followed by its appearance some months later in the United States), reviewers as varied as Publishers Weekly, History Today, Military Review, the London Review of Books, and multiple newspapers praised A World on Fire to the high heavens. A couple of these hailed the topic as one neglected or a story never-before told. The reviewer for Elle Magazine (UK) heralded A World on Fire as “a sprawling, cinematic account” with “colorful personal details” that “confers dazzling . . . life” onto her subject, not, as that same reviewer pointedly observed, another of those “musty history books.” Foreman is no stranger to fame. Her first book, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, won the Whitbread Book Award for biography and became a best seller and the basis for the 2008 Oscar-winning movie, “The Duchess.” In the aftermath, Foreman (and her family) became the featured subject of an extensive article in Vogue magazine, and she has sold the film rights to her new book as the basis for a TV miniseries by BBC in collaboration with HBO. Born in London, raised in Los Angeles, educated in England with a doctorate from Oxford University, and now living in New York while a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, she has followed the academic path as well as the entertainment model set by her father, Carl Foreman, who was the Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer of classic Hollywood films that include “High Noon,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” and “The Guns [End Page 459] of Navarone.” The Sunday Times Magazine in the UK extolled A World on Fire in a cover story, complete with a full-color picture spanning the outside front page and showing the author wrapped in three flags—the Stars and Stripes, Stars and Bars, and Union Jack—all with the title “Divided She Stands.” High praise indeed—and in many respects richly deserved. Foreman’s bibliography for A World on Fire is so extensive that the publishers opted to put it on her website rather than add it to a book already nearly a thousand pages in length. Her magnum opus stands as a well-crafted, kaleidoscopic view of a highly complex series of domestic and foreign events that incorporates close to 200 characters and 170 illustrations, plates, and maps. The result is an epic drama with no overarching thesis and precious little analysis, but one that has nonetheless garnered international attention. She is especially strong on graphically describing battles and the horror of war—particularly Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, and Richmond’s final hours. Foreman’s work is a highly ambitious attempt to relate the entire story in chronological sequence, fleshed out by richly detailed accounts of social, political, military, economic, and diplomatic matters—all wrapped in a beautifully written and thoroughly researched narrative that succeeds in bringing this tumultuous period to life. As part of her effort to substantiate Britain’s role in the Civil War as “crucial,” she shows its longstanding cotton connection with the South, its sympathy with the so-called underdog, its shipyards producing Confederate warships, and its thousands of people who participated in the war. More than a few flagrantly violated Britain’s Foreign Enlistment Act by serving as officers and crew members of Confederate blockade runners and commerce raiders. Some Britons fought on both sides—with one, Henry Morton Stanley of “Dr. Livingstone I presume” fame, fighting...

Belfast and the American Civil War

This article examines the Belfast reaction to the American Civil War as reported by the US consul, Dr John Young, and the leading Belfast newspapers. Such major events and issues as the secession crisis, the Trent affair, the sailing of commerce raiders and blockade runners, major battles, the economic effects of the war, and the death of President Abraham Lincoln generated strong opinions. The local opinion in Belfast is measured against the analysis of general Irish attitudes toward the Civil War by the historian Joseph M. Hernon.

Schooner Sail to Starboard: The US Navy vs. Blockade Runners in the Western Gulf of Mexico (review)

Schooner Sail to Starboard: The US Navy vs. Blockade Runners in the Western Gulf of Mexico (review)

Clyde Built: Blockade Runners, Cruisers and Armoured Rams of the American Civil War - by Eric J. Graham

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 37, Issue 1 p. 216-217 Clyde Built: Blockade Runners, Cruisers and Armoured Rams of the American Civil War - by Eric J. Graham ANDREW LAMBERT, ANDREW LAMBERT War Studies, King's College LondonSearch for more papers by this author ANDREW LAMBERT, ANDREW LAMBERT War Studies, King's College LondonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 04 February 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2007.00179_19.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume37, Issue1March 2008Pages 216-217 RelatedInformation