Greyhound  "Short-lived Blockade Runner"  1863 - 1864

The Greyhound was a 372-ton iron-hull, single-screw steamer that was built in 1863 by Kirkpatrick McIntyre and Company of Greenock, Scotland. At 201 feet long with a 23-foot beam, she had a draft of 13 feet. The sleek, fast British ship was painted gray and dispatched to North America to participate in the lucrative blockade-running trade with the Confederacy. After picking up a valuable cargo of war material in Bermuda, the Greyhound sailed toward North Carolina's Cape Fear River. On her approach to the river's mouth, she was spotted and chased by Union blockaders, but escaped seizure and safely sailed upriver to the port of Wilmington, docking on April 2, 1864.

On May 8, the Greyhound was ready to make her second attempt at running the blockade. Besides the Confederate cotton that was crammed into her holds and stacked on deck, the ship carried two important passengers, ex-spy Belle Boyd and the editor of the Richmond Examiner, Edward A. Pollard, both of whom were seeking passage to England. For some unexplained reason it was dawn before the Greyhound passed out of the river into the ocean. She was soon spotted and chased by the USS Connecticut, which caught up with her and forced her to surrender on threat of broadsides from the powerful Union cannon.

The Greyhound's brief blockade-running career was over, but not the role she played in the drama of the Civil War. En route to Boston, the Union prize master, Sam Hardinge, fell in love with Belle Boyd and asked her to marry him. Upon arriving in Boston, the Greyhound's Rebel captain, George H.. Bier, mysteriously managed to escape the ship, causing Hardinge to be dismissed from the service for "neglect of duty".

The Greyhound was bought by the U.S. government and turned into the floating James River headquarters of Gen. Benjamin Butler. On November 27, 1864, Rebel saboteurs managed to sneak a torpedo that looked like a lump of coal into the ship's bunkers. The Greyhound was destroyed in the explosion.

Fascinating Fact:  Before being captured, the captain of the Greyhound dumped $30,000 in gold into the ocean. Belle Boyd burned important dispatches she was carrying for the Confederate government.


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