The Civil War Adventures of a Blockade Runner

By William Watson

When William Watson was born in a Scottish village in 1826, few could have imagined that he would fight in the American Civil War, and follow that with a career as a blockade runner in schooners and steamboats.

For two years in the 1860s, Watson ran from the Union gunboats and worked alongside diverse, and frequently dubious, characters as he navigated the seas from Texas to the Caribbean. Despite the constant risk of disease, dishonest ‘business’ contacts, unhappy or even murderous crews, storms and pursuits, Watson seems to have thoroughly enjoyed his time on the high seas and loved his ships.

In Adventures of a Blockade Runner, which he constructed from his diaries and ephemera of the time and published in 1892, Watson takes his readers on an adventure through events and locations that have long been lost to history.