Bahamas

Bahamas Philately: 1980 Definitive Series – 18c Blockade Running (American Civil War)

thedigitalphilatelist 09/07/1980

The American Civil War (1861 –1865) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (“the North”) and the Confederacy (“the South”), the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.

During the American Civil War, The Bahamas was a haven for blockade runners that were aligned with the Confederate States. As the Union had blockaded all Confederate ports, blockade runners traded cotton at Nassau for British goods, with the cotton eventually finding its way to British cotton mills. The first blockade runner docked at Nassau on 5 December 1861 and the town experienced a population boom.

Grand Bahama Island had a decreasing population in the 19th century because of Nassau, but after the Civil War began in 1861, Grand Bahama Island’s population doubled because of the blockade runners’ actions.

The stamp depicts an engraving featuring a Confederate blockade runner entering the port laden with cotton after successfully slipping through the blockade. The runner appears to be the Ruby, a 177′ iron hull sidewheel steamer which made 8 successful blockade runs before being destroyed on 11 June 1863 near Charleston.

Details
  • Designer: John Waddington of Kirkstall Ltd, Leeds, England
  • Printer: Format International Security Printers Ltd
  • Process: Lithography
  • Paper: 
  • Watermark: Crown CA (Diagonal)
  • Perf: 14.5 (comb)
  • Cylinders: Printed in four panes separated by gutter between the four panes, and guillotined into two horizontal panes.
    • 1A (Cyan) 1A (Yellow) 1A (Magenta) 1A (Black) 1A (Pale Violet) : 1B (Cyan) 1B (Yellow) 1B (Magenta) 1B (Black) 1B (Pale Violet) [upper left : upper right]
    • 1C (Cyan) 1C (Yellow) 1C (Magenta) 1C (Black) 1C (Pale Violet) : 1D (Cyan) 1D (Yellow) 1D (Magenta) 1D (Black) 1D (Pale Violet) [lower left : lower right]
  • Sheet: R10 x 5 in two panes separated by a gutter (100 stamps)
  • Quantity:
Cylinder Numbers
References
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