Thursday, May 21, 2015

Farragut's Denbigh Finally Destroyed-- Part 2

William Watson, a Confederate blockade runner who shipped on the Rob Roy and other elusive runners, later wrote of the Denbigh:  "I may safely say that one of the most successful, and certainly one of the most profitable, steamers that sailed out of Havana to the Confederate States was a somewhat old, and by no means a fast, steamer, named the Denbigh.

"This vessel ran for a considerable time between Havana and Mobile, but when the latter port was captured by the Federals, she ran to Galveston, to and from which port she made such regular trips that she was called the packet.   She was small in size, and not high above water, and painted in such a way as not to be readily seen at a distance.

"She was light on coal, made but little smoke, and depended more upon strategy than speed. She carried large cargoes of cotton, and it was generally allowed that the little Denbigh was a more profitable boat than any of the larger and swifter crafts."

Nevertheless, in the end she met the same fate as hundreds of her sister runners.

In Short, the Perfect Blockade-Runner.  just Ask David G..  --  Old B-R'er

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