MORSE, Consul to C. F. Adams, United States, December 24, 1862

Mr. Morse to Mr. Adams.

Sir: In compliance with your request, I herewith forward a list comprising most of such steamers and sailing vessels as are known to me to have left the port of London laden with supplies for the insurgents now in rebellion against the United States.

I do not pretend that all the vessels which have left this port in the confederate service are known to me, but believe the following list of vessels can be relied on as being a part of those which have left with supplies, principally contraband of war, with the intention of either running the blockade directly, or of going to a neighboring Atlantic or Gulf port, and there discharging their cargoes into another class of vessels, the more easily to get such cargoes to their places of destination.

Vessels known to have left London.

The tonnage given is the net tonnage, or the carrying space of the vessel, the space taken up by machinery, &c., being deducted.

The screw steamer Fingal left Greenock in the summer of 1S61. Her cargo was sent there to her by the steamer Colletis from London.

Vessels which have left ports on the east coast of England, and which may not have been reported by any other consul:

Circassian, Modern Greece, Stettin, Bahama, and Bermuda, from Hartlepool; Hero, Pataras, Labnan, Sidney Hall, and Tubal Cain, all screw steamers; and brig Stephen Hart.

During the last six or eight weeks there have been great exertions made in this country to procure good, fast steamers, and to forward them, laden with supplies for the insurgents, to the ports of the rebel States, or to ports adjacent to the coast of those States. Many of the boats in this service have been purchased on the river Clyde. Three new ones, destined for the same service, have recently been launched there, and have not yet gone to sea. They have been named Emma, Gertrude, and Louisiana; and several more are building there.

The ownership of these steamers, the cargoes they carry out, and the manner of conducting the trade, is a question of much interest to Americans. During the early stages of the war the trade was carried on principally by agents sent over from the Confederate States, aided by a few mercantile houses and active sympathizers in this country. These agents, with their friends here, purchased the supplies, and procured steamers, mostly by charter, and forwarded the goods.

But by far the largest portion of the trade, with perhaps the exception of that in small arms, is now, and for a long time has been, under the management and control of British merchants. It is carried on principally by British capital, in British ships, and crosses the Atlantic under the protection of the British flag.

Parties come from Richmond with contracts made with the rebel government by which they are to receive a very large percentage above the cost in confederate ports of the articles specified. British merchants become interested in these contracts, and participate in their profits or loss. I have seen the particulars of one such contract drawn out in detail, and have heard of others.

There are good reasons for believing that a large portion of the supplies more recently sent to the aid of the insurgents has been sent by merchants on their own account. Several will join together to charter a steamer and make up a cargo independent of all contractors, each investing as much in the interprise as he may deem expedient, according to his zeal in the rebel cause, or his hope of realizing profits from the speculation.

Again: some one will put up a steamer to carry cargo to a rebel port at an enormous rate of freight, or to ports on the Atlantic or Gulf coast, such as Bermuda, Nassau, Havana, Matamoras, &c., at a less freight, to be from there reshipped to such southern ports as appears to afford the best opportunities for gaining an entrance. Ships bound on these voyages are, of course, not advertised, or their destination made known to the public. Their cargoes are made up of individual shipments, on account and risk of the shippers, or go into a joint stock concern, on account and risk of the company, each member thereof realizing profit or suffering loss in proportion to the amount he invested in the adventure. Both steamers and cargoes are often, if not generally, insured in England “to go to America with liberty to run the blockade.”

Some individuals and mercantile firms appear to have entered into the business of supplying the rebels with the means of carrying on and prolonging the war with great zeal and energy on their own account. Mr. Z. C. Pearsons, of Hull, has been largely interested in this contraband trade, but appears not to have been very fortunate in its pursuit, for he has had several valuable steamers taken by our blockading squadrons, and, in addition to this bad luck, appears to have received in payment for the goods he did get in a kind of paper or payment that could not be made available here.

Of the firms which are the most largely engaged in this mode of rendering aid to and sustaining the rebellion, Frazier, Trenholm & Co., of Liverpool, and the firm of W. S. Lindsay & Co., of London, are among the more prominent.

The foregoing list of vessels, steam and sailing, was taken from memorandums. Had my other duties allowed me time to examine my despatches for the last year and a half, I could no doubt add others to the list, and give you some interesting particulars concerning many of them. But for want of that time I am obliged to submit it, imperfect as I fear it is.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,