Good Morning!
To celebrate the end of another long work week, we bring you a “Friday Funny.” Today’s Civil War era cartoon is an 1862 Currier & Ives sketch entitled, “The Blockade on the “Connecticut Plan.””
The above is a comical commentary on the Union government’s early efforts to augment an outdated naval fleet and effectively blockade the Southern ports. Two Union vessels—little more than wooden washtubs—try to block the path of the sleek CSS Nashville. Attempts by the USS Cambridge‘s and USS Gemsbok’s crews to stop the blockade runner are easily thwarted as the Confederates call out in mocking, “Give our compliments to the Secretary, and tell him, he shall certainly hear from us by every Northern vessel that we meet.” Understanding the futility of the venture, the Union sailors comment, “Well Shipmate we’ve done our duty; We were put in this old tub to Watch and we have Watched” and “The only way to capture that Ship, is to get Morgan to buy her”—alluding to the financial support of wealthy banker Junius Spencer Morgan.
Image Credit: Library of Congress.
