Phantom Of The Blockade

Life aboard a Confederate blockade runner was dangerous, exciting, and if one survived it, profitable. To Anse O’Neal, a seventeen-year-old from Oracoke Island off North Carolina, it meant even more. It was gratifying to know that the rifles, powder, and medicines carried back from Bermuda in exchange for the South’s cotton helped the Confederacy, and it gave Anse the opportunity to serve under Captain Ransome Tracy, whose audacity in running the blockade out of the Cape Fear River had won praise from Jefferson Davis. This story, based on actual experiences of the time, describes some of the Gray Witch’s hairbreadth escapes she made voyage after dangerous voyage to bring back arms and supplies for Lee’s hard-pressed army.