8. One Confederate blockade runner made 33 voyages in just 18 months
SS Syren was one of the newly designed blockade runners when it made its first voyage in autumn, 1863. It was built in Greenwich, England, for the Importing and Exporting Company of South Carolina. Its first run was completed when it arrived in Wilmington from Nassau in November 1863. The ship was built with an iron hull which adopted the experience of previous blockade runners, giving it a shallow draft, a low profile, and a long and narrow shape. Twin steam engines drove its two side paddle-wheels. The amount of coal demanded by the engines limited the amount of cargo the ship carried, but it also was used to carry mail and passengers, as well as official dispatches and documents for the Confederacy.
It made 33 successful voyages, earning its owners’ substantial profits and enhancing its reputation for speed. In February, 1865, it eluded the Union Navy outside Charleston Harbor and moored in the Ashley River, where it was trapped by USS Gladiolus. The ship was set afire by its crew and abandoned, but arriving Union troops at the scene extinguished the fire. The ship was seized by the Navy and used as a merchant steamer for the remaining months of the war. Syren was one of the few ships which was actually captured by Union soldiers, rather than sailors, during the American Civil War.