Sunken Blockade Runner Lelia Gets Protected Status-- Part 3: Building Confederate Ships in Britain

The Confederacy had no navy to defeat the Union blockade.  They looked to Liverpool to build the blockade runners and cruisers they needed.

James Dunwoody Bullock (uncle of future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt) a Confederate naval officer, was sent to Liverpool  in June 1861 with orders to  to obtain six  steam vessels suitable for use a commerce  destroyers and to purchase and transport arms.

Liverpool based  merchants and the foreign bankers of the Confederacy,  Fraser, Trenholm and Co., helped provide funds for the construction of the CSS Florida, the first foreign built  commerce raider.  This ship was built by William C. Miller  and Sons of Toxteth, who also built the Lelia.

Bulloch's second contract was with Laird's in Birkenhead who built the CSS Alabama, launched in 1862.

Another Liverpool shipyard, Jones, Quiggin and Co. built many ships for the Confederacy including five blockade runners, the first one being the Banshee, which became the first steel ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. in 1863.

--Old B-Runner