Confederate Cruisers to Strike California Ships?

APRIL 1ST, 1964: Secretary Welles wrote Rear Admiral C.H. Bell in the Pacifix expressing concern that Confederate cruisers might strike at the California trade. //// Intelligence had been received that Confederate raiders Florida and Georgia might assemble at "the straits of Le Maire, between the island of Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island through which...nine out of every ten California-bound ships must pass, in plain sight from either shore....the protection of the land in these straits is such that the rebel steamers could lie almost obscured and in comparatively smooth water...while escape [by] merchantmen would be impossible." //// Always Something to Worry About. --Old B-Runner