State

They Thumbed Their Noses at the Yankees Saiga of I In* Mocknrio runners is vivid¬ ly recalled ol John Foiird's unique museum. A lol of Tar Heel folks dream "dreams." John Foard, for instance, an old Wilmington boy. did. But where most of them merely dream, Foard made his dream come true. So, next time you're down Carolina Beach 'way. go slow on 421 just be¬ fore the blacktop enters the resort. Then look over on your right and you'll see the attractive grounds and the big. briek building that houses John Foard's "drcam-come-truc." For his particular dream took the form of a museum: the Blockade Runner Mu¬ seum. Inside this unique museum of the old Civil War blockade running days don't expect to sec a confused, hetero¬ genous "clutter" of unrelated dis¬ plays of the war as a whole, for you won’t. Instead, you'll find everything there arranged to carry out a single FRAi\'K A. MONTGOMERY, JR. theme: what things were like in the Lower Cape Fear section during the well-nigh unbelievable days of the blockade runners. Just about everywhere you look (you can listen, too) you’ll sec relics and artifacts, maps and models, di¬ oramas and charts, all closely inter¬ related. and so skillfully and dramati¬ cally arranged that as you stand there it’s no trick at all to feel you're more a participant in. than an observer of, those stirring events of a century ago. As you listen to the muffled boom¬ ing of the miniature guns, from fort and gunboat alike, and watch the smoke curl up from tiny muzzles, you can't help but thrill anew at the vaguely-remembered tales of fleet, gal¬ lant little ships which, just a short way down the beach from where you stand, long ago plied their dangerous, roman¬ tic trade. Time and time again those rakish, daring vessels, loaded to their gun¬ wales with southern cotton on outbound voyages, impudently thumbed their noses at the prowling ships of a mighty northern blockading squadron lying in wait for them in the sea's blackness just out of range of old Fort Fisher's menacing guns. Then, their cotton ex¬ changed at Nassau, in the Bahamas, or St. George, in Bermuda, for the medi¬ cines. food, clothing and materials of war so desperately needed by the Typicol ot the long, rokish blockodc runners wos the Robot E. Lee, shown bore ot onchor in the Cope Fcor ot Wilmington. She mode 21 trip* through the Icderol blockodc, corrying over $2 million worth ot cotton to the outside world in cichongo tor vitol supplies needed by the Contederocy. obove A Confedcrotc blockodc runner, identity unknown, ot onchor in the horbor ot Nossou, the Bohomos, о port which otfen ployed host to the Heel little vessels— 'Photos courtesy ot Blockodc Runner Museum > THE STATE. July IS. 1967