Blockade Runner Alabama

From the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

The first three steamers to run the blockade out of Mobile were the locally owned Alabama, Cuba and Fanny (a captured ship that had been the Fox).  Between may 1862 and September 1863, these three ships were responsible for carrying more than 4,000 bales of cotton to Havana, Cuba.

Using the figures of one of the Alabama's runs to Havana in June 1863 as a base figure, with a cotton bale weighing about 510 pounds and cotton selling for  32 cents a pound, a little more than $3 million in cotton was exported in 16 months.  Even so, this was just one-seventh what had been exported before the war from Mobile.

The Alabama, Cuba and Fanny were lost by mid-September 1863, however.  The Cuba was burned to prevent capture in May 19, 1863; the Alabama was captured on September 12 and the Fanny was burned the same day to prevent capture.

--Old B-R'er