Riband for her pleasure

We are told-  more than once, as it happens- that:

the damage the cruisers the U.S. commissioned in the spring of 1862, many of them fast side-wheel merchant steamers, including a couple of Blue Riband holders, had been bad enough.

However, even the most cursory research- using no source other than Wikipedia- will demonstrate that this is a lie.


The Blue Riband applies only to the difficult westbound route, travelling against rather than with the Gulf Stream. Here are the list of steamships which held the Riband:

Great Western (British, Great Western Steamship Company); scrapped 1856
Columbia (British, Cunard); wrecked 1843
Cambria (British, Cunard); in service with the Italian navy
America (British, Cunard); still in British service
Europa (British, Cunard); still in British service
Asia (British, Cunard); still in British service
Pacific (US, Collins); vanished 1856
Baltic (US, Collins); leased to Union government
Persia (British, Cunard); still in British service

There is only one US Blue Riband steamer still in operation; as such, it is impossible for US cruisers to include 'a couple of Blue Riband holders'. More importantly, we are told explicitly in Chapter 4 part 1 that the Baltic was not commissioned as a raider in spring:

The two raiders cruised under stormy skies in the Western Atlantic for several days, finding nothing but flotsam and jetsam, until they came up on the big 2,700-ton merchant steamer SS Baltic, outbound from Le Havre under War Department charter with French artillery and small arms, including several thousand M1853 Minie rifles, along with several tons of saltpeter, sulfur, and mail.

In the interest of charity, we might be tempted to extend the definition of 'Blue Riband' to cover the eastbound crossing. Unfortunatly, as the British were equally and overwhelmingly dominant on both routes, this does not in fact improve the Union position:

Great Western (British, Great Western Steamship Company); scrapped 1856
Britannia (British, Cunard); in service with the Prussian navy
Columbia (British, Cunard); wrecked 1843
Hibernia (British, Cunard); in service with the Spanish navy
Canada (British, Cunard); still in British service
Pacific (US, Collins); vanished 1856
Arctic (US, Collins); sank 1854
Persia (British, Cunard); still in British service

It is a shame that TFSmith assumed there must have been countless Blue Riband winners available to the Union to commission as merchant raiders. Had he bothered to do the research, he might have amended some of his conclusions about the relative strengths of the British and Union merchant navies.