Running the Blockade: SS Fanny (Fox)

Running the Blockade: SS Fanny (Fox). . During the American Civil War the Union forces' grand strategy, the Anaconda Plan, was to encircle and then strangle the Southern States into submission. Confederate response included the use of blockade runners that dashed through the naval blockade with desperately needed supplies. , One such ship was a civilian steam tug that had slipped out of New Orleans and taken on a new life. Built in New York in 1858 for the New Orleans market, she was christened the SS A.J. Whitmore. Renamed the SS Fox, the Confederates immediately put her to blockade running to Havana. After New Orleans was captured, the vessel was taken by the Yankees in May, 1862 when found tied up immediately put her to blockade running to Havana. After New Orleans was captured, the vessel was taken by the Yankees in May, 1862 when found tied up in the bayous. Now the steam ship was used by Union forces to tow mortar boats to bombard Vicksburg and as a dispatch ship by Admiral Farragut. Recaptured in a daring raid by a Confederate Marine boarding party in April, 1863, in the passes of the Mississippi River mouth, she was renamed SS Fanny and continued her exploits. , The SS Fanny made several runs to Cuba taking cotton and returning to Mobile with coal, munitions, and other supplies for the beleaguered Gulf Coast Southerners. The plucky ship's luck ran out on September 13, 1863. She was spotted sneaking past Ship Island. A flotilla of warships chased her into the shallow Mississippi Sound. Under steady cannon fire she ran up on the Pascagoula Beach. Sailors tossed supplies to Pascagoula citizens on shore then set the vessel afire to avoid recapture. , Since that time erosion has moved the beach back several hundred yards but the original site was directly out from 11th Street, just east of the tip of the Pascagoula beach pier. The Fanny's boilers remained visible at low tide into the 1950s. , Images: Upper left, no pictures of CSS Fanny exist, but she would have looked similar to this, the CSS Nashville. Lower right: Chasing A Blockade Runner is thought to be a depiction of this actual final chase of Fanny.