Digging Those Blockade-Runners-- Part 3: 150th Anniversary of the Loss of the Modern Greece Today

On this, the sesquicentennialof the blockade-runner Modern Greece being chased ashore near Fort Fisher by blockaders.

Sky-high profits were to be made. Cotton bought for pennies a pound at Wilmington sold for as much as a dollar on Britain.Blockade-running companies, many of which were British ventures, could get a 100% return on their investment on a single run.  Some runners never completed even one run, but others amassed twenty or more trips, paying off very handsomely for their owners.

Sixty percent of Confederate small arms came in through the blockade as did 30 % of the lead for bullets and at least 3/4 of the saltpeter, a key ingredient in gunpowder.  Along with those came medicine, cloth for uniforms, boots and, late in the war, even canned meat destined for Confederate troops.  Of interest, some of that canned meat came from Chicago and Cleveland, something you would not expect.

I have to Wonder How the Canned Meat from Chicago Came About?  --Old B-Runner