Forum > Research
The blockade runner "Phantom"
Phantom:
Was there really a blockade runner named "Phantom?" If so, what did it look like?
Yes, there was a steamship built in England specifically to run the United States blockade of the rebellious states calling themselves the Confederate States of America.
Two separate speculations about the appearance of the Phantom have been published, one an artwork, and the other a set of plans and instructions for a generic blockade runner. Popular naval artist Tom W. Freeman published a print of two blockade runners, one a side wheel steamer called Phantom. That ship was shown with a long deckhouse between the paddle boxes taking up nearly a third of the length of the deck. He used a reduced scale image of that print in ads in the Naval Institute Proceedings magazine. Several years after that Glen Guest published a plan in a modeling magazine of a flush-deck side wheeler with a long deckhouse amidships rather similar to the Tom Freeman painting. Neither of those illustrations follows a particular ship, although they do look somewhat like the hull of a "Clyde River" steamer combined with a deckhouse similar to that of the large paddle runner Colonel Lamb.
Now, the sticking point: I have found no sign of a side wheel blockade runner named "Phantom." But there WAS a purpose-built steel single-screw blockade runner named "Phantom" built by William C. Miller's yard on the Mersey. She was a beautiful and extreme example of a steam clipper of the time. She is also one of the first three experimental purpose-built steamships intended to run the blockade, along with the steel side-wheeler Banshee (I) and the twin-screw steel Pelican. I plan to include a reconstructed plan of "Phantom" in my book.
greateastern:
paul silverstone seems to be the expert on Confederate navies so you might look at his book. also there is this book :Civil War Navies 1855-1883
pub. (2001), 218 pages.
The second in a five-volume series on U.S. warships, this valuable reference lists the ships of the U.S. Navy and Confederate Navy during the Civil War the years immediately following - a significant period in the evolution of warships, the use of steam propulsion, and the development of ordnance. Civil War Navies provides a wealth and variety of material not found in other books on the subject and will save the reader the effort needed to track down information in multiple sources.
Each ship’s size and time and place of construction are listed along with particulars of naval service. The author provides historical details about each ship that include actions fought, damage sustained, prizes taken, ships sunk, and dates in and out of commission as well as information about when the ship left the Navy, names used in other services, and its ultimate fate. 140 photographs, including one of the Confederate cruiser Alabama recently uncovered by the author, further contribute to this indispensable volume. This definitive record of Civil War ships updates the author’s previous work and will find a lasting place among naval
perhaps this:
From Frank E. Vandiver, ed., Confederate Blockade Running through Bermuda, 1861–1865: Letters and Cargo Manifests (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1947).
There could well be a Phantom if this is true:
Footnote: The success of the Union Naval blockade played a major role in the eventual victory over the Confederacy. By the end of the War, the Union Navy had captured more than 1,100 Confederate blockade runners and had destroyed or run aground another 355 Vessel
http://acws.co.uk/archives/index.php?page=confederate_blockade_runner&dir=history
he Blockade Runners
From "The Navy in the Civil War, Vol. I"
by James Russell Soley, USN
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/navy-hub/navy-history/the-blockade-runners.html
could it be this is what you want?
Phantom: length 190', beam 22', draft 8' 6", crew 33, speed 18 knots. Phantom is said to have been one of the original line of Confederate Government steamers operated between Wilmington NC and Bermuda by the CSA Ordnance Bureau. She was a "very handsome," steel-plated, screw steamer of 170 horsepower, constructed at Liverpool late in 1862 as "Hull No. 167" by a "G. Hillman"; drawings of her lines, captioned in German, do not specify the builder's yard. She seems to have left Liverpool early in April 1863. Chased ashore by USS Connecticut, she was lost on her third run into the Cape Fear, 23 September 1863, near Rich or New Topsail Inlet above Fort Fisher and fired by her crew, who made good their escape in the lifeboats. Boats from Connecticut could not get near her to put out the fires or get her off. One landsman in a boat making the attempt was killed by Confederate sharpshooters.
http://users.wowway.com/~jenkins/ironclads/famous.htm
seems like drawings exist but no mention of where they are to be located. Maritime museum in Liverpool?
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/displays/civilwarships/
at merseyside museum this:
ormation sheet - Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool museums
... including steel screw steamer Phantom (Fawcett, Preston & Co., Liverpool), 1862, and paddle steamers Rosine and Ruby (Jones Quiggin & Co., Liverpool), 1864-1867. Drawing of proposed alterations to Colonel Lamb (Jones, Quiggin & Co.), 1864. Correspondence, re "small arms", and tracings of torpedoes...
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/about/sitesearch/search.aspx?ssterms=phantom&page=1
happy reading
Phantom:
Thank you Great Eastern. That is the single screw runner but not yet a side wheel named Phantom. The screw steamer was built by William C. Miller and Fawcett, Preston & Co. Gustav Hillman was a German naval architect who travelled to multiple shipyards and made copies of drawings and took lines off hulls under construction. His drawings of what I believe to be Phantom are incomplete, showing only lines and bulkhead centers. (I identified them when the curator of models at the Mariners Museum.)
Paul Silverstone writes great compilations of information about warships. The two books of his you mention are must haves for American Civil War navies but include relatively few blockade runners out of the more that 500 steam ships built, bought, or intended for the trade.
Frank Vandiver's blockade running book is an annotated and edited set of cargo manifests and agent's letters. As such is is helpful for the cargoes transshipped at Bermuda but not so helpful for construction details.
Soley's book is full of operational details about the blockade, and therefore describes enough of blockade running vessels and tactics to give a great overview of both sides.
All of the books that mention individual blockade runners that cover Phantom only list one ship, and that one is a single screw runner. So I still do not know where the connection with a side wheel blockade runner and the name Phantom comes from. No contemporary source I can find, including lloyds Register, the Liverpool Underwriters Register of Iron Ships, and Bureau Veritas has a side wheel steamer named Phantom that matches either,
greateastern:
could it be that Freeman took artistic license and added the side wheels (there were plenty of side wheel BRs to be sure) , and perhaps never saw a real picture of the Phantom (if one existed), or it was originally designed as a sidewheel and later turned into a screw prop? There are plenty of stories of ships making the change before completion, as paddles were deemed less effective against screw props. Sometimes drawings indicate with a dot where the wheelshaft is on the longitudinal view--is there one on the drawings you have? Have you checked the drawings of the PS Hope --a Quiggin PS) against the drawings of Phantom? The drawings of Hope have been long available and perhaps aided Freeman in his "Phantom". There were sort of standard designs of the period that were shortened or made wider depending. Looking at designs in the Denny List one sees that the same design recurs but with changes to suit the requirements. Just a thought. And finally, could Hillman have given a name to the wrong ship since he was copying drawings? My background is musicology and manuscripts are often attributed to the wrong composer by copyists, knowingly and not. Not unlike many "GREAT" works of art.
greateastern:
part 2
are you familiar with this?
Also the ship may be mentioned in the "engines" book listed later on. Since Miller and Fawcett worked through Trenholm, there may be a listing in his papers.
LIVERPOOL AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Introduction
Liverpool, the Wirral, Lancashire and most of the surrounding area, had strong political, emotional and financial connections and sympathies with the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Indeed, so strong were these connections that it has been quoted that at one time "more Confederate flags fluttered above Liverpool than over Richmond" (the Confederate capital in Virginia).1
One of the main reasons for the link was economical, based on the importance of cotton, upon which both the Southern States and the Lancashire mills depended. However, the ties were much deeper and emotional than purely economical ones, and the history of this relationship is still able to raise controversy and argument even today.
The outbreak of hostilities in 1861 found the Southern States in the worst position with the North having more manufacturing, arms production and industrial power. The South, because of its lack of resources, was forced to look to Europe. The already strong links from the cotton trade, made Liverpool the obvious choice for organising supplies and aid for the Confederacy. It was also important to keep open the supply line for cotton upon which the South and the Lancashire cotton mills depended. A fleet of Confederate blockade-runners and naval cruisers were built on Merseyside to keep this vital supply line open.
James Dunwoody Bulloch, a Confederate naval officer, arrived in Liverpool on 4 June 1861 with orders to buy or have constructed 6 steam vessels suitable for use as commerce destroyers against the Union, to be delivered, unarmed, under the British flag at any Southern port. In addition, he was to purchase and blockade run arms for the cruisers. He was assisted by Fraser, Trenholm & Co., foreign bankers to the Confederacy (see below).
His first contract was with Fawcett & Preston Engineers (see below) and W.C. Miller & Son, Ship Builders, to build a steam sloop, CSS Florida, which was delivered in 1861. The second contract was signed in July 1861 with Laird Brothers, for number 290 (known as Enrica). On the 29 July 1862, Enrica sailed to Anglesey for trials with various dignitaries on board, and after putting them off by a tug, quietly sailed off for the Azores to take on armaments and ammunition from the Agrippina, and to begin life as the CSS Alabama.
Alabama had mostly British and mainly Liverpool crew on board, as when she had left Liverpool under secrecy, after being given the choice, most of her c.30 Liverpool crew signed on for the Confederate Navy. We hold a certificate of competency of George Freemantle, Quartermaster in the archives collection. (DX/1841)
Captain Raphael Semmes took command of the Alabama on the 13 August, and from that time until June 1864, she captured and burned 55 Union merchantmen worth $4,500,000 and bonded ten others to the value of $562,000.2 On the 19 August, the Alabama met the USS Kearsage off Cherbourg, France, and after a spectacular battle watched by thousands on the French coast, the Alabama was sunk. Fortunately the steam yacht Deerhound (also built at Laird's) and owned by Englishman John Lancaster, saved a number of crew, including Captain Semmes and a number of officers, who were given a hero's welcome at Southampton.
The Alabama is known to have been photographed only twice in her brief career, once when at Singapore (a profile distant view) and once in Table Bay, off Cape Town on 12th August 1863 when a photographer was allowed on board. Cape Town photographer Arthur Green, took a series of photographs of Captain Semmes, 1st Lt John Kell and several of the crew on deck, and seven of the surviving images are held at Cape Town Archives, US Naval Historical Center, George Eastman N York or in private collection. The Merseyside Maritime Museum acquired three of these photographs in 2005.
James Dunwoody Bulloch ordered several more ships from Laird's including the "Laird's Rams" (Nos. 294 & 295) which were impounded by the Government and later sold to the Royal Navy. The rams took their name from the iron piercer, which protruded six to seven feet from the prow and was used for striking opposing vessels below the waterline.
After the end of the war, Bulloch remained in Liverpool, and died in 1901. He is buried in Smithdown Road Cemetery, Toxteth. In 1873, the United States Government's demand that the British Government should pay compensation for the damage caused by the Confederate ships was settled. Known as the "Alabama Claim", because she had caused the most damage, and together with the Florida and Shenandoah, had accounted for half of the total number of Union vessels captured. It resulted in the British Government paying £3,000,000 compensation for allowing the Confederate Government to purchase the ships in England and allowing them to use British ports.
1. Merseyside Connections With The American Civil War, by John Townley (see below for further details).
2. Ghost Ships of the Mersey, by K.J. Williams, p. 18. "Bonded" meant that the captain of the captured ship signed an agreement that at the end of the war the value of the ship would be paid to the Confederacy.
Archives
The Maritime Archives & Library holds many significant items and collections relating to the American Civil War.
Jones, Quiggin & Co., Shipbuilders
Jones, Quiggin & Co., was founded in 1855, and built composite and iron ships including sailing vessels, paddle and screw steamers. Much work was for customers abroad, and included commissions for the Confederate Government, arranged through Fraser, Trenholm & Co. Ships built at this time include five blockade runners, one of which, the Banshee, became the first steel ship to cross the Atlantic in 1863.
Records
Specification Book (includes several Confederate Blockade runners)
(photocopy available in the Searchroom)
DX/154/1 1855 - 1865
Engraving of 5 ships launched from the yard of Jones, Quiggin & Co.,
Illustrated London News
DX/287/34 February 1865
See below for specifications for the Rosine and papers relating to their other blockade running ships, and also for records relating to the construction of the Banshee.
Fraser, Trenholm & Co., Cotton Merchants
This unique collection consists of correspondence and other documents of Fraser, Trenholm & Co., Cotton Merchants of 10 Rumford Place, Liverpool (1860-1866), and a branch of John Fraser & Co., Merchants of Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Fraser, Trenholm was a prominent commercial house in Liverpool. The firm's manager and senior partner, Charles Kuhn Prioleau, was a naturalised Englishman, who had been brought up in Charleston, South Carolina. The senior partner of the English branch of Fraser, Trenholm & Co., based in Charleston, George A. Trenholm, became Secretary to the Confederate States Treasury in 1864. The Liverpool firm made an enormous contribution to the war effort of the South, acting as banker to the Confederate Government and financing the supply of armaments in return for cotton.
Fraser, Trenholm also participated in blockade running, organising the building of ships such as the CSS Alabama, and assisted in the floating of Confederate loans and generally encouraged support in Europe for the South. The collection provides a unique insight into these activities. Many of the major protagonists in the Civil War are mentioned in the letterbooks and correspondence. The firm's role in the reconstruction of the South and involvement in world trade, especially in armaments, is also revealed.
Of the fourteen letterbooks in the collection, c.1860-1877, the first, produced in Liverpool between 1862 and 1865, is by far the most important. It contains the correspondence of C.K. Prioleau with leading Confederates, references to blockade running and to other aspects of the war and business. Equally important are more than one hundred loose autograph letters which were sent to Prioleau between 1860-1869. These contain crucial correspondence with G.A. Trenholm, J.D. Bulloch (agent for the Confederate Navy), Major Caleb Huse (principal Confederate Army purchasing officer in Europe) and General C.J. McRae (C.S.A. treasury agent in Europe). Personal correspondence of C.K. Prioleau includes letters from his wife, Mary, and many from civilians living in the South whose lives were being affected by the course of the war, including eye-witness accounts of the shelling of Charleston. There are also items relating to work undertaken by the Merseyside firms of Jones, Quiggin & Co. (shipbuilders) and Fawcett, Preston & Co. (engineers), the surviving archives of which are also held by the Maritime Archives & Library (see above and below for details).
In 1867 Charles K. Prioleau set up in business in London after the defeat of the Confederate States and the bankruptcy of his old firm, and took the letterbooks and other records dating from 1860 with him. These, with some records of his London business, Prioleau & Co. (1867-1877) and many personal letters form the Fraser, Trenholm archive. The financial and operational records, ledgers, accounts, cash books, contracts, etc., may well have been hastily destroyed, as has been widely believed. However, the surviving material is of great importance. It has been published on microfilm as Civil War & Confederacy: The Business Records of Fraser, Trenholm & Company of Liverpool and Charleston, South Carolina, 1860-1877, by Adam Matthew Publications, 8 Oxford Street, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 1AP.
Records
200 letters to C.K. Prioleau, many from key characters in the Confederate States, with a few photographs, 1860-1869.
Letters and telegrams sent to/from C.K. Prioleau. Wide variety of subjects, over 600 documents, 1870-1876.
Letters, re mainly financial matters, cheque book stubs, 1871-1877.
Specifications for vessels including steel screw steamer Phantom (Fawcett, Preston & Co., Liverpool), 1862, and paddle steamers Rosine and Ruby (Jones Quiggin & Co., Liverpool), 1864-1867.
Drawing of proposed alterations to Colonel Lamb (Jones, Quiggin & Co.), 1864.
Correspondence, re "small arms", and tracings of torpedoes, 1862-1875.
Assorted bills, receipts and accounts, re cotton and military stores, etc., 1869-1875.
Legal documents, re cases held in the New York Supreme Court, the Admiralty and Chancery Courts. Various subjects including the purchase of cotton, ownership of vessels, and Fraser Trenholm's role as agents to the Confederacy, 1862-1870.
Parliamentary papers including extracts from correspondence with the US Government and with the Customs Commissioners, re Alabama, 1861-1864.
Printed list of members of the Southern Independence Association, Manchester, 1862.
Telegram codebook belonging to G.A. Trenholm and lists of trade codes, c.1870.
Letterbooks of Charles Kuhn Prioleau with various correspondents, subjects include cotton, the Alabama and other vessels, blockade running, Confederate loans, etc., 1862-1877. (The first letterbook is available on microfilm in the Searchroom.)
Letterbooks of J.R. Hamilton (Prioleau & Co.), 1868-1874, 3 Vols.
Account Book Sales No. 1, Prioleau & Co., 1869-1876.
B/FT 1860 - 1877 13 Boxes & 1 Roll
Rigby Research Collection
Photocopies of documents, articles and extensive notes regarding the naval aspect of the American Civil War (see also D/LNRS).
D/RIG
Career papers of George Freemantle Quartermaster of CSS Alabama: Letter of Discharge from CSS Alabama, 1864. Letter of Discharge from the Indian Navy, Certificate of Competency as 2nd Mate, photograph of a print of the Alabama, 1855-1877
DX/1841
Black & white albumen prints taken on board the Confederate commerce raider 'Alabama'. Taken by Arthur Green, Table Bay, Cape Town, August 1863. The Alabama in her brief two year life was only photographed twice, once when at Singapore (a profile distant view) and once in Table Bay, off Cape Town on 12th August 1863 when photographers came on board, this was the only one occasion when photographers were allowed on board the Alabama- these three prints were taken on this occasion.
PR.469.1-3
Jones, Quiggin & Co., Shipbuilders
The Banshee was built by Jones, Quiggin & Co., and engines by H.N. Lawrence & Co., both Liverpool firms.
Records
Agreement for building paddle steamer Banshee, 1862.
Agreement for constructing engines and boilers of Banshee, 1862.
Invoice for extras for steamer Banshee, 1863.
D/B/115/S 1862 - 1863
Copy plans of CSS Alabama (including a possible contemporary sail plan) and other
Confederate vessels can be found in our ship plan collection
Fawcett Preston Engineering Co., Ltd., Arms & Engine Builders
Founded in 1758, the firm built up an international reputation for engine building, including those for the President, the largest ship in the world in 1840. They also supplied guns and armaments, and the engines for the first Confederate steam sloop, CSS Florida, in 1861.
Records
Engine Books, 1813-1962 (3 Vols.).
B/FP 1778 - 1967 38 Boxes
Archives held in our Reserve Store
These are only available strictly by prior appointment only.
Bryson Collection:
Cobham Family Records displaying a Union viewpoint
Correspondence of George A. Cobham of Warren County, Pa., with his nephew, John Cobham of Liverpool.
D/B/2/2-9 1862 - 1865
Memoir of Colonel George A. Cobham, Jnr., died 20 July 1864 (Battle of Peach Tree Creek).
D/B/1/10/1
Alsop, Wilkinson (Solicitors) Collection
Papers, re steamer Pearl (cotton seized in the State of Alabama).
B/AW/70 1861 - 1872
Danson Family Records displaying a Union viewpoint
Letter (printed in North American and US Gazette) to Henry C. Carey Esq., of Philadelphia (printed anonymously but in fact written by J.T. Danson, Founder and First Secretary of the Thames and Mersey Marine Insurance Company), arguing against the practicality of the Civil War, 1861.
D/D/111/12/7a
Bibliography
ARMSTRONG, W. Cruise of a Corsair. London: Cassell, 1963.
BARBARY, James. Which side are You On. London: MacDonald, 1968.
BELCHER, H. The First American Civil War, 1775-1778, Vol. I. London: MacMillan, 1911.
Blockade Runners: Pictorial Supplement III. Salem: The American Neptune, 1961.
BOWCOCK, Andrew. CSS Alabama: Anatomy of a Confederate Raider. London: Chatham,
2002.
CLARK, William Bell (ed.). Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 3.
Washington: Department of the Navy, 1967.
CRAWFORD, Martin. Anglo-American Crisis of the mid-19thj Century: The Times and
America, 1850-1862. Athens: University of Georgia, 1987.
DURKIN, Joseph T. Confederate Navy Chief: Stephen R. Mallory. Columbia: University of
South Carolina Press, 1989.
FERRIS, Norman B. The Trent Affair: A Diplomatic Crisis. Knoxville: University of
Tennessee, 1977.
FOSTER, Kevin J. The Search for Speed Under Steam: The Design of Blockade Running
Steamships, 1861-1865. East Carolina: MA Thesis, 1991.
GOSNELL, H. Allen. Guns on the Western Waters: The Story of the River Gunboats in the
Civil War. Louisiana: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1993.
HEARN, Chester G. Gray. Grey Raiders of the Sea: How Eight Confederate Warships Destroyed
the Union's High Seas Commerce. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, Baton
Rouge, 1996.
HOLLETT, David. The Alabama Affair: The British Shipyards Conspiracy in the American
Civil War. Wilmslow: Sigma Press, 1993.
HOOLE, W. Stanley (ed.). Confederate Foreign Agent: The European Diary of Major
Edward C. Anderson. Alabama: Confederate Publishing Company, 1976.
JARVIS, R.C. The Alabama and the Law: Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire
and Cheshire, Vol. III, pp. 181-198. 1959.
JOHNSON, Ray. The Alabama Story. Wirral: Department of Leisure Services and Tourism,
[ca.1986].
LESTER, R.I. Confederate Finance & Purchasing in Great Britain. Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia, 1975.
NEPVEUX, Ethel Trenholm. George and Alfred Trenholm: The Company that went to War,
1861-1865. South Carolina: privately printed, 1973.
PARKER, William Harwar. Recollections of a Naval Officer, 1841-1865. Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press, 1985.
ROBINSON, Charles M. Shark of the Confederacy: The Story of CSS Alabama. London:
Leo Cooper, 1995.
SEMMES, Admiral Raphael. Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War between the States.
Secaucus: The Blue & Grey Press, 1987.
SHINGLTON, Royce. High Seas Confederate: The Life and Times of John Newland Maffitt.
Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1995.
SOLEY, J.R. The Blockade & the Cruisers. New York: Charles Scribners, 1883.
THIS IS ON google but phantom is not indexed
http://books.google.com/books?id=OjAOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+blockade+and+the+cruisers&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iM_yUdmEOYrSqQGg-oHgCw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20blockade%20and%20the%20cruisers&f=false
STILL, W.N. & TAYLOR, J.M. Raiders and Blockaders: The American Civil War Afloat.
Washington: Brassey's, 1998.
STILL, W.N. Iron Afloat: The Story of the Confederate Armorclads. Columbia: University
of South Carolina, 1985.
TAYLOR, T.E. Running the Blockade: A Personal Narrative of Adventures, Risks and
Escapes during the American Civil War. London: John Murray, 1912.
TOWNLEY, John. Merseyside Connections with the American Civil War. 1990.
WILLIAMS, K.J. Ghost Ships of the Mersey: A Brief History of Confederate Cruisers with
Merseyside Connections. Birkenhead: Countyvise, [ca.1982].
Useful Addresses
The National Archives (PRO)
Ruskin Avenue
Kew, Richmond
Surrey TW9 4DU
Tel: 020 8392 5200
Fax: 020 8878 8905
Email: enquiry@nationalarchives.gov.uk
Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk University College London
140 Hampstead Road
Camden
London NM1 2BX
Tel: 020 7679
Fax: 020 7679 5157
Email: spec.coll@ucl.ac.uk
Archive sources available on the American Civil War, can be located in the A2A database, containing details on archives held throughout England dating from the 1900s to the present day: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/default.aspx
INFOSHEET59.SS
MMM/DOCS/LR/2.3.04
Revised DRL 2009
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version