CHAPTER XIII
THE STEAMER IN THE FOG
The Bronx was slowly approaching the steamer in the fog, which appeared
to have stopped her propeller, and to be resting motionless on the long
swells, hardly disturbed by a breath of air. By this time the smokestack
of the Bronx was vomiting forth dense clouds of black smoke. The
steamers of the navy used anthracite coal, which burns without any
great volume of smoke, and blockade runners had already begun to lay
in whatever stock of it they were able to procure to be used as they
approached the coast where they were to steal through the national
fleet. The attention of the naval department of the United States had
already been given to this subject, and the first steps had been taken
to prevent the sale of this comparatively smokeless coal where it could
be obtained by the blockade runners.
Christy had been on the blockade; and he had been in action with a
steamer from the other side of the ocean; and he knew that this black
smoke of the soft coal, exclusively used by English steamers, was a
telltale in regard to such vessels. It had been an idea of his own to
take in a supply of this kind of fuel, for while its smoke betrayed the
character of vessels intending to run the blockade, the absence of it
betrayed the loyalty of the national steamers to the blockade runners.
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