known as Emily of London — wrecked near the south end. The Dee out of Hamilton, Bermuda, ran aground on the night of February 5, only to be discovered and destroyed the following morning by the USS Cambridge. Three nights later, the Emily, also running out of the British transshipment point of Bermuda, beached about 300 yards north of the Dee. Strangely, the blockade-runner Fanny and Jenny, sailing from Nassau, also accidentally ran aground near Masonboro Inlet, within sight of the other two grounded ships, on the night of February 9, 1864. The USS Florida spotted the two new ships at dawn the following morning. Commander Pierce Crosby sent boats to take possession of them. Blue-clad sailors reached the Fanny and Jenny in time to seize 25 crewmen, charts and a Confederate flag. The Fanny and Jenny’s famous pilot, Thomas Edwards Burriss of Smithville (now Southport), North Carolina, man-aged to escape capture, but the ship’s captain, and a paymaster both drowned while trying to make it ashore through the heavy surf. Some accounts claim that the captain was none other than Louis M. Coxetter, whom the US Navy considered a notorious privateer and blockade-runner. Maybe so, but he enjoyed a long and pros-perous career as a Confederate sea captain. Commander Crosby of the Florida later reported, however, that the captain of the Fanny and Jenny may not have been the Coxetter, one of the US Navy Department’s most wanted men, but a nephew. The Fanny and Jenny’s cargo reportedly comprised only a “few small articles of merchandise and a good deal of coal,” but one of her engineers informed Commander Crosby that “there was a handsome sword, gold mounted, for General Robert E. Lee on board. It was destroyed with the vessel; it was a presentation sword.” Crosby mentioned it in his official report about the sinking of the Fanny and Jenny to Admiral S. Philips Lee, commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. William F. Keeler, a 22 WBM february 2014 paymaster on the USS Florida, wrote to his wife: “One of the engineers which we took from the Fanny & Jenny told us there was a splendid sword on board sent by some English noblemen to Gen. Lee at a cost of $2500.” (Approximately $42,000 today.) “He told us that as soon as the vessel was beached the Capt. ordered his boat lowered, went into his cabin & got the sword. In attempting to get into the boat he lost the sword overboard & the boat was soon after swamped & every one in her lost, most of them were officers of the vessel.” The bodies had been pushed onto the beach by the waves or were still rolling about in the surf when Union sailors approached the stranded blockade-runner. The Florida, now assisted by the Cambridge, hoped to save both the Fanny and Jenny and the Emily by pulling them off the beach. When such operations proved successful the US Navy often purchased the blockade-runners and converted them into speedy cruisers to chase after other blockade-runners. About the time sailors attached hawsers, however, Confederate sharpshooters and a Whitworth rifle-cannon began firing at them from behind nearby sand dunes. The Union sailors quickly retreated to their vessels, having only enough time to set the Fanny and Jenny and the Emily on fire. As the Confederate small arms and cannon fire increased, the Florida and the Cambridge steamed further offshore. From there they watched the stranded blockade-runners burn, and the ships soon became a total loss. The story of the Fanny and Jenny and her gold sword for General Lee began 150 years ago. Cape Fear chronicler Louis T. Moore wrote about it in Stories Old and New of the Cape Fear Region, first published in 1956. Moore found no evidence in England of the existence of the fabled sword. But the legend refuses to die. The block-ade- runner’s watery grave too, is a point of debate. Many believe the Fanny and Jenny is buried deep beneath the ocean sands about 200 yards east of Crystal Pier. Professional historians and archae-ologists claim other-wise. Billy Ray Morris, a Wrightsville Beach native, director of North Carolina’s Underwater Archaeology program COURTESY OF THE NAVAL HISTORY & HERITAGE COMMAND PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN COXETTER COURTESY OF DR. CHRIS E. FONVIELLE JR. MAP BY DANIEL RAY NORRIS
2014-2
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