Lockwoods Folly Encounter
By Joan Wenner, J.D. · Originally published April 2024 · p. 12
By December 1861, Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was finding it difficult to purchase, convert, and arm additional ships needed for blockade duty at Southern ports that President Lincoln had declared a week after the firing on Fort Sumter. New warship construction was dragging; Britain, France, and other countries spoke of a “paper blockade.” Subsequently, the blockade was executed, although certainly not always successfully, particularly in the beginning. With more than 3,500 miles of coastline containing nearly 200 harbors and inlets, the blockade stretched from South Carolina to the border of Mexico. It was extended to the Chesapeake Bay after Virginia and North Carolina joined the Confederacy. According to The Civil War Chronicle, the U.S. Navy had fewer than 60 ships to cover the entire coast and not all of them were up to the task. One Charleston resident exclaimed, “Old Abe blockaded our port…a nice blockade indeed!…on the second day a British ship…ran the gauntlet with a snug freight of $30,000.” While the Union Navy steadily increased its size and strength in the months ahead, vast amounts of goods slipped through the Federal ring in sleek, fast ‘blockade runners’ but never enough to bolster the sagging Confederate economy. The game of cat and mouse on the high seas could be very profitable for the blockade runners who managed to elude their guards. According to The Civil War Chronicle’s comprehensive timeline of war’s events, a successful captain could make as much as $5,000 per trip.
The Pet—One of the most successful blockade runners of the Civil War In January 1863, the 212ton British-built ‘gunboat,’ Pet, launched on October 11, 1862, was registered as the property of Dublin merchant Charles Purdue. Under the command of Captain Mason with 36 crewmen and officers, she sailed around the coast to Liverpool, where she loaded general freight from speculative commercial concerns before setting sail for Nassau on January 10, 1863, arriving on March 23rd. As the vessel and fellow blockade runner Aires were off the island of St. Thomas but still within its territorial waters, the USS Wachusett spied them and made after them. Before the Union ship could get close enough, a Royal Navy frigate joined the British-flagged ships and acted as their escort. The Wachusett prudently withdrew.
Her last trip ends at Lockwoods Folly, North Carolina The Pet, during her career, successfully ran the blockade sixteen times in all. On what would be her final trip, again having cleared Nassau, she was intercepted by the USS Montgomery off Lockwoods Folly Inlet, North Carolina, close to midnight. Having signaled the Pet to heave to, and getting an apparent refusal, the Montgomery opened fire with a 30-pounder rifled gun. At this, she hove to and let off steam. Two boats were then lowered from the Pet, and 13 persons, including a pilot, rowed ashore. The Pet was boarded, but her then master, Captain Ross Davis, had destroyed all mail and compromising documents before Union sailors clambered aboard. The ship was taken to Boston for adjudication.
Joan Wenner is a longtime contributor to Civil War News with a law degree, and a special interest in maritime topics and ‘snapshots’ of historical figures. A native New Yorker, she now resides in eastern coastal North Carolina. For comments email [email protected].