Blockade-Runner Nassau (Gordon, Theodora)-- Part 1

I started this thread back on October 13, 2011, on my Civil War Blog, Saw the Elephant. It was in connection with the capture of Confederate commissioners Slidell and Mason, an event that nearly started a war between the United States and England which would have been extremely beneficial to the Confederacy.

Going back to October 12, 1861, James Mason and John Slidell were wanting to go to England from Charleston, SC. They considered chartering the Nashville which could have taken them directly to England, but word of their plans got to the Union blockade and they decided to go on a different ship.

They found the fast, 500-ton sidewheeler Gordon that had already run the blockade several times. However, it was not big enough to take them all the way to England so would have to go to Havana and then take a British ship to England. If a Union ship were then to capture them from a neutral ship (like England) then the Confederacy would automatically be recognized as a belligerant nation.

Being Belligerant. --Old B-Runner