Lot Essay
The Confederate blockade runner R[obert] E. Lee was built by Thomson's at Govan in 1860 and launched as the Giraffe. An iron paddler, she was registered at 360 tons and plied as a packet between Glasgow and Belfast until purchased for #32,000 by agents of the American Confederate States in 1862. Renamed R.E. Lee and placed under the command of Captain John Wilkinson, she swiftly became the most successful of all the southern blockade runners. Operating in and out of Wilmington, North Carolina, she took cotton worth an estimated $2 million through the blockade until finally captured by the Union Steamer James Adger on 9th November 1863. Subsequently serving in the U.S.S. Fort Donelson, she was sold after the end of the Civil War and took the name Isabella when in private ownership.