And a prose bit on the problems of blockade-running...
The door to the President's office swung open.
"Ah, Mr. Welles," Lincoln said, nodding to him. "It is a comfort to see you."
"I am ever your faithful servant, Mr. President," Welles replied, a smile touching his lips for a moment.
"Do take a seat," Lincoln invited. "Now - what news?"
"Not good news, Mr. President," Welles said, with a long sigh. "The navy yards are doing all they can to fit out new ships with guns, but the ships I want for the navy are the ships we want for running the blockade - good, well-found steamers of sound construction - and all too often there is a bidding war over those ships on the ways and laid up."
Lincoln frowned a little, then raised a finger. "Mr. Secretary, I wished to ask you about running the blockade in particular. How does it go?"
"It goes... poorly," Welles admitted. "The problem is threefold."
Lincoln leaned forwards a little to listen.
"In the first place, there is the problem of ports. We have few ports, Mr. President, or rather it would be better to say we have fewer entry points to our ports - many of them are on Long Island Sound or Chesapeake Bay, which are stopped up by a single squadron of Royal Navy ships each; worse, while ships running our blockade of the Rebels in the last year could set off from points such as Bermuda or the Bahamas or Havana, and have a journey of five or six hundred miles, we have journeys of one thousand miles from Havana or many thousands from elsewhere. It is hard for blockade running vessels to be both large enough to carry worthwhile cargoes, long-legged enough to steam from Europe, agile enough to evade the blockading British vessels and shallow enough to hide upriver from the British gunboats. We have a few such ships, and are building more, but they are not efficient; and, as I have said, they are the same ones we would want for gunboats."
The President absorbed that.
"I confess, I had been thinking in terms of how easily our own blockade was flouted," he said, considering. "And in how it was given scant respect by the British."
"The British have the reputation to make a blockade stick, which we did not," Welles admitted. "And they have brought France with them. But the second issue is the problem of ships - for, you see, there is a grave problem there."
He shook his head. "The greatest merchant fleets in the world are the fleets of England, our own, and France," he said. "Obviously the British merchant fleet is useless, but our own is not nearly so efficient for running blockades as I would like - it is vulnerable to capture anywhere, unless it raises the flag of another power, and even then all the other powers of note have granted the British the right of search. So any ships of our own fleet we send out are liable to capture anywhere, not just upon running the blockade."
The Secretary paused, then went on. "And, as you know, we did not wish to do the same too brazenly to British ships."
"Little our forbearance granted us in that regard," Lincoln observed. "So our own ships are of no use?"
"They are of some use," Welles corrected. "There are fast mail packets under government commission, and of those I would venture perhaps one third is caught, depending on the other end of their run. But aside from that, the problem is simply that there is too much risk and too little profit, so the owners of the ships do not venture to risk them - we cannot pay enough in gold to make it worthwhile - and instead many of them are selling their ships to another flag, changing their registration and letting them take up the grain trade or other tasks. So there are not many ships willing to risk the blockade, and the two-thirds who make it through are a small number compared to the trade of New York or Boston or Philadelphia last year."
"You mentioned another flag ... such as the French?" Lincoln enquired. "Is there any hope of French assistance?"
"Little enough," Welles said, waving his hand at the map. "There have been a few, but we have to offer great incentives - a French ship may carry a cargo to the Rebels, at little risk, and trade across for cotton, or she may take the great risk of the British blockade of our shores and trade her cargo for grain or small cargoes. We must pay a great bounty, but the Rebels can actually levy a small tarriff on imports. And the same is true in Europe - it is costly to recruit ships and cargoes, and costlier to ensure the British consulate does not outbid us and buy the information from the stevedores. Just last week the Belgian Cantabria was caught off Long Island, and the rumour is that the British had word of her arrival a day ahead of her reaching Long Island Sound."
He shook his head. "But the greatest problem is that of the safety of the ships once they have docked," the Secretary said. "That is the problem that our forts have been shot out - there is little that can be easily done to prevent a British gunboat simply following our blockade runners into harbour, and they can hardly evade while entering dock."
Lincoln nodded his understanding.
"Well, Gideon, it seems you will be earning your pay," he said.
