Blockade Runner!
9 NOVEMBER 1863
BLOCKADE RUNNER!
One of the contributions of the Union Navy in the Civil War was the maintenance of an economy-checking blockade of Confederate seaports. Ships attempting to run this blockade risked confiscation by the Union Navy at a total loss to the owner. Yet soaring prices for common goods and the huge profits that were possible from a single successful run, enticed many to try, usually from blockade-running bases in neutral Bermuda or the Bahamas. Such was the case on 5 November 1863 when the blockade runner CSS ELLA AND ANNIE stood out of the Bahamas for Wilmington, North Carolina, with arms and ammunition filling her hold. Departures were usually timed for an arrival in the dead of a moonless night, but the 240-foot iron-hulled sidewheel steamer ran into a storm an hour out of port that delayed her crossing. Acting Master Frank N. Bonneau, CSN, diverted to Masonborough Inlet, north of the mouth of the Cape Fear River, to await the next nightfall. This day he weighed anchor and headed south, hugging the beach just outboard of the surf zone. Several times he bumped on his longshore run, but he was able to keep her from grounding.
But ELLA was sighted by the patrolling gunboat USS NIPHON. US Navy Acting ENS Joseph B. Breck moved NIPHON close inshore, positioning himself directly athwart ELLA’s path. Bonneau recognized that an attempt to pass seaward of his antagonist would subject him to a merciless Union cannonade. Passing to landward was impossible, as both ships were almost awash in the surf already. Faced with the probability of losing his boat and cargo, Bonneau made a desperate decision!
He pointed ELLA’s bowsprit forward of the Union gunboat’s waist, unfurled the Stars and Bars, and ran headlong at the Yankee. At 150 yards Bonneau shouted his intentions at the gunboat, which answered with a musket and cannon volley. The two ships lurched as they struck, NIPHON suffered the carrying away of her cutwater and starboard boat rail. Bonneau kept up a full head of steam as the two ships pushed broadside to broadside. But as ELLA scraped past, Union boarders swarmed across her rail. Cutlasses flashed and pistols cracked. Two cabin boys were deeply cut, and a fireman was shot as he crested the midships ladder. One Union sailor was accidentally shot by a shipmate. Bonneau was forced to surrender. He was taken to Boston where NIPHON was repaired and ELLA AND ANNIE was taken into the Union Navy as USS MALVERN. Bonneau was put on trial as a pirate, one of the rare times such transpired during the war. He was convicted, though his death sentence was set aside by the presiding judge, an admiral, who admitted he would have done the same in Bonneau’s situation!
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 16 NOV 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Carse, Robert. Blockade: The Civil War at Sea. New York, NY: Rinehart & Co., 1958, pp. 53-55.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865. Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. III-154.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, p. 208.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, p. 95.
Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, p. 75.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Many of the US Navy ships active in the blockade in the early Civil War years were former civilian vessels or captured blockade runners pressed into service with the Navy. NIPHON however, had been purpose-built for the Navy as a blockader. “Niphon” is an ancient word meaning “fountain of light,” the same root from whence is derived the Japanese word for their homeland, “Nippon.” In fact, throughout her career it was not unusual for NIPHON’s name to be misspelled in official documents as “Nippon.”
NIPHON’s skipper, Acting ENS Joseph Berry Breck, distinguished himself in several later captures and in excursions ashore. Breck’s health suffered as a result of his adventures however, and he was relieved later in the war for medical reasons. He saw the end of the Civil War only by several months, dying in July of 1865. He is remembered with the Clemson-class destroyer BRECK (DD-283).
MALVERN remembers the 1 July 1862 victory of GEN George B. McClellan over Robert E. Lee at the battle of Malvern Hill during the Peninsula Campaign.
As often transpired, ELLA AND ANNIE was never officially commissioned into the Confederate Navy, although her government affiliation is revealed in that her officers were all commissioned Confederate Navy line officers.
