Initiating a major diplomatic flap, Union Navy Lieutenant

D.M. Fairfax leads a two-boat boarding party from USS

San Jacinto, right, toward the British mail steamer Trent

on the afternoon of November 8, 1861.

When the Union warship San Jacintostopped the

British mail steamer Trenten route from Havana

to the West Indies, it touched off an international

incident that threatened to involve the United

States in a third war with Great Britain.

Paris-based associate John Slidell was a

better choice. Slidell was a skilled politi-

cian and sophisticated New Yorker who

had married a French-speaking Creole and

moved to New Orleans.

In October, Mason and Slidell were in

Charleston waiting to run the blockade

aboard CSS Nashville,a fast steamer head-

ing directly for England. However,

Nashvillehad a deep draft and could only

use one of Charleston’s channels, which

were heavily guarded by Union warships.

The diplomats booked passage on Gordon,

a ship chartered for $10,000 by George

Trenholm, who ran a cotton brokerage,

finance, and shipping firm, with offices in

Liverpool. The Fraser, Trenholm Company

did much of the banking for the Confeder-

acy in Great Britain. The shallow-draft

Gordon,renamed Theodorato confuse

Union blockaders, could use any channel;

she left Charleston at 1 AMon October 12

and easily evaded the blockade. “Here we

are,” Mason wrote gleefully, “on the deep

blue sea, clear of all the Yankees. We ran

the blockade in splendid style.”

Two days later the diplomats arrived in

Nassau but missed their connection with

a British steamer. They turned for Cuba,

hoping to find a British mail ship bound

Duel at Sea

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