Sandbar spells end of blockade runner

The Facts ^ | 30 June 2003 | Carlos Armintor

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Confederate blockade runners and federal ships played a game of cat and mouse during the Civil War as the Union attempted to put a stranglehold on exports and imports in the South.

It was a game the Acadia lost.

The Acadia, a blockade runner, was on its way to the mouth of the Brazos River on Feb. 5, 1865, when it hit a sand bar about 10 miles northeast of present day Surfside Beach. The crew made it to shore, but the ship was blasted to pieces the next day by the USS Virginia.

The mast of the Acadia remained visible from the shore for years. It came to be known as "the boilers" by area residents. Because of the shifting of sands and the impact of storms, "the boilers" can no longer be seen.

The wreck site was examined by Wendell Pierce during the late 1960s and early '70s. He recovered several artifacts from the ship, which are now maintained at the Brazoria County Historical Museum.

Pierce wrote of the history of the ship in a pamphlet, "The Acadia, A Blockade Runner."

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports even before some Southern states had seceded. When Lincoln first declared the blockade, the Union was ill equipped to police ships in and out of ports. However, as the years went on, the Union Navy grew and became more effective, Pierce wrote.

"The strengthened blockading forces caused a scarcity of critical items in the South after the fall of New Orleans in 1862, making it essential to increase the import trade," Pierce wrote. "Blockade running then became big business and more profitable than privateering."

There was much money to be had in blockade running, Pierce wrote.

"In the first year of the blockade, profits of 100 to 200 percent were common," Pierce wrote. "Later they rose to 2,000 percent."

As the effectiveness of the blockade increased, so did the need for a speedy boat. River Clyde Steamers, a style of boat, became popular for blockade running, Pierce wrote.

"Using the River Clyde Steamer style of marine architecture, two Canadian businessmen decided to build the 'Utopian' of all blockade runners in the spring of 1864," Pierce wrote. "The ship was to be the most elegant, strongest, fastest, and able to carry more cargo than any of her sister blockade runners. Her name was to be the 'Acadia.'"

The owners empowered Capt. Thomas Leach to sell the ship. The Acadia left Halifax in December 1864 and stopped in Nassau, Havana and Vera Cruz. Unable to sell the ship, Leach decided to run the blockade of Texas himself, Pierce wrote.

"At this late stage of the war, practically all of the Southern ports were sealed off and next to impossible to run safely, even Galveston," Pierce wrote. "So the mouth of the Brazos River, entrance to Velasco, was the only halfway safe port to try because it had Confederate cannons to protect blockade runners from the Federal cruisers within a two-mile range."

At dusk on Feb. 5, 1865, there was a heavy fog when the Acadia hit a sand bar not far from the Brazoria County shore.

"The possible chance of getting shelled caused him to panic and run the Acadia straight into the shore," Pierce said. "What a shameful way for such a beautiful ship to end her career!"

The crew left the ship and went to the shore. The next morning, the Acadia was discovered by the USS Virginia and her master, Lt. Charles H. Brown.

"At 9:00 a.m., he ordered all hands to quarters and commenced firing on the helpless, abandoned and defenseless Acadia," Pierce wrote. "She was shelled for two solid hours."

There was an attempt by Union troops to burn the ship, but Confederate cavalry troops on the shore prevented them, Pierce wrote.

The ship's mast protruded out of the water for years, but finally slipped below the surface of the Gulf. However, some of the artifacts from the Acadia can be seen in the Brazoria County Museum's collection today.