By Hardy Kenwright
Head
of the Navy:
 |
| Mr Gideon Wells |
I was pleased to meet up with the
Navy Secretary, Mr. Gideon Wells or ‘Father Neptune’ as the President
refers to him. Although he argued against the Union blockade
of Southern ports, he duly carried out his part of the Anaconda Plan.
Under his management, the US Navy has grown from 90 vessels in 1861, of which
only 42 were serviceable, to the current fleet of over 600 vessels, including
numerous Ironclads and many innovative designs.
What
of the Steam Ship Herald Case:
I asked Mr. Wells of his opinion regards the ‘Herald’
case. “I see it as either a second-class piece of propaganda or a simple case
of insurance fraud. If the former, it shows how desperate the Rebels are
becoming in their attempts to court sympathy overseas. If the latter, it shows
how desperate their British based suppliers are becoming as investment in their
cause melts away.”
George
A. Trenholm’s Impartiality:
 |
| Mr George Alfred Trenholm |
George
Alfred Trenholm is a South Carolina businessman,
financier, politician, and slaveholding planter who owned several plantations
and strongly supported the Confederate States of America.
When the Civil War broke out, Trenholm immediately moved his
company's head office from New York to the Bahamas and Bermuda. He was
appointed to South Carolina's State Marine Battery Commission, where he oversaw
construction of the Confederate ironclad Chicora.
Trenholm personally financed construction of a twelve-vessel flotilla for
Charleston’s defence.
Trenholm's
wealth has increased as his 60 commercial ships ran the Union blockade.
The ships
carry cotton, tobacco and turpentine to England, and take back coal, iron,
salt, guns and ammunition. His company - now called Fraser, Trenholm and
Company - became the Confederate government's overseas banker. The office
in Liverpool arranged
cotton sales and financed its own fleet. Our U.S. consul in Liverpool, Thomas
Dudley, estimates Trenholm's fleet has imported $4.5 million of cotton into
Great Britain.
Trenholm
and his Liverpool-based partner Charles K. Prioleau, (son of a Charleston
lawyer) worked with fellow American, James Dunwoody Bulloch, as Confederate foreign agents
in Britain to manage their arrangements, especially shipping munitions home.
US
Navy Restraint:
In 1861, Great Britain legally recognised the
‘belligerent status’ of the Confederate States of America
(CSA), but has never recognised it as a nation and neither signed a treaty with
it nor ever exchanged ambassadors. The ‘belligerent status’ means that the
International laws or conventions for ‘War at Sea’ apply to the CSA rather than
laws dealing with Piracy or illegal insurrection.
The US Navy as part of the rules of blockade, has to
‘overhaul a ship’, regardless of what flag is being flown, before it is
permitted to board the vessel and inspect it, it’s manifest and papers, for
proof of Blockade Running. ‘Overhauling’ does not involve shooting unless the
ship concerned uses firepower itself, especially as the Blockade Runners are
not so helpful as to ever sail under a CSA flag.
Mr. Gideon Wells stated that, “The claims of Fraser,
Trenholm and Company are farcical considering the US Navy now has a
stranglehold on the Southern Ports. It would be ludicrous for the US Navy to
break the rules of blockade over one vessel, especially when in a position of
such strength.
Mr. Charles Adams, our representative to the
British in London is in regular contact with Palmerston’s Liberal Government,
the Earl of Derby’s Conservative Opposition, the Admiralty and the City of
London.
If there was ever a danger of the British recognising the Rebels it
subsided after Antietam and disappeared with the Emancipation Declaration.
If anything, the British and French Governments with an eye to British
North America and Mexico and are going out of their way to be cooperative with
us, influenced possible by the 600,000+ soldiers and 600+ naval vessels
currently in US service.”
