23
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
he Modern Greece was a large iron cargo
steamship built by Richardson, Duck & Company
in Thornaby (Stockton-on-Tees), England, in 1859.
She measured 210 feet long, 29 feet wide, and 753 gross
registered tons. The ship was driven by a propeller screw,
but was also schooner-rigged to maximize her speed.
Registered as the Modern Greece upon her completion,
she was initially owned by Stephanos Theodoros Xenos
of the Greek & Oriental Steam Navigation Company of
London, England.
In 1862, Z.C. Pearson & Company, also of London,
purchased the Modern Greece to smuggle supplies to the
Confederate States of America. Zachariah Pearson believed that
the potential for enormous profits was well worth the risks of
getting caught by the US Navy blockading vessels along the
South’s coastline. But the Modern Greece’s 10- to 12-foot draft
— the depth from waterline to keel — made her only mar-ginally
suited for the blockade-running trade, which required
a lighter draft to navigate the shallow approaches to most
Southern seaports. Nevertheless, she embarked from Falmouth,
England, bound for Wilmington, North Carolina, in early
1862. The ship’s cargo hold was packed with military arms,
ammunition and artillery, as well as hardware, cutlery and
other civilian products, the sale of which Pearson hoped would
turn a good profit for his company. But first the Modern Greece
had to reach the safety of Wilmington’s docks.
The whereabouts of the Modern Greece from the time she
sailed until her appearance off Wilmington in late June 1862
are unknown. The Union blockading force was vigilant in
watching for blockade-runners, but spotting smugglers’ ves-sels
at nighttime when they preferred making the final dashes
into the harbors was challenging. As it turned out, the Modern
Greece was camouflaged with a coating of slate gray paint on
her hull, making the Federals’ task even more difficult. Up
against the backdrop of a sandy beach, she would be hard to
distinguish from seaward.
A haze blanketed the ocean in the pre-dawn darkness along
the Cape Fear coast on June 27, 1862. The USS Stars and Stripes
was at her blockading station near New Inlet when the lookout
spied a “large steam propeller, schooner-rigged” vessel close
inshore about three miles north of Fort Fisher, the inlet’s main
guardian, and heading southward. A few minutes later, about
4:15 a.m., the USS Cambridge also discovered her.
“Enemy in sight,” the signal officer on the Cambridge alerted
the Stars and Stripes. The Cambridge fired a warning shot at
the unidentified vessel as both gunboats moved immediately to
intercept her before she crossed the bar.
When the captain of the Modern Greece realized he was
being stalked, he hoisted the Union Jack to indicate his neu-trality
as a British citizen, while at the same time pressing full
steam ahead toward New Inlet. The chase ended abruptly
when his ship ran hard aground about half a mile north of
Fort Fisher.
How the Modern Greece got ashore is still a matter of
debate. Did she accidentally run onto a shoal, or did her
captain intentionally scuttle her?
Commander William A. Parker of the USS Cambridge
claimed: “She was necessarily beached in consequence of our
continually firing upon her.” On the other hand, Confederate
General Samuel G. French, commander of the District of the
Cape Fear, informed the War Department in Richmond:
“We have sunk her.” Another Confederate officer claimed:
“Her draft being too great to enter, the commander of the
fort, fearing capture, sunk her outside the bar.”
Perhaps the pilot of the Modern Greece was forced to try
and enter New Inlet before the tide was right. The ship’s deep
draft would allow her to cross the shallow bar only at high
tide. If that were the case, then maybe the unidentified cap-tain
intentionally ran her aground with the idea of rescuing
as much of the cargo as possible. Or perhaps the ship’s pilot
was simply not familiar with the approaches to New Inlet and
inadvertently ran her onto a shoal known as “the lump.”
T
British Enfield rifle-musket and saber bayonet recovered from the wreck of the Modern Greece, circa 1962.
COURTESY OF FORT FISHER UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY BRANCH