Blockade Runners
The year is 1863. The American Civil War has strangled the Confederacy, and cotton rots on Charleston's wharves while the Union blockade holds iron vigil over every harbor. Scottish merchant John Playfair sees his chance: build a ship fast enough to slip through, deliver guns to the Rebels, and return with a fortune in cotton. His new vessel is a marvel, sleek and swift, but the two passengers who board under false names harbor secrets that will transform a commercial gamble into something far more dangerous. As cannon fire rains from Union warships and Confederate batteries alike, Playfair must choose between his fortune and a cause that was never his to carry. Written at the war's bloody end, Verne weaves a ripping adventure that probes the moral murkiness of profit, loyalty, and what men will risk when everything is on the line. The result is neither simple adventure nor polemic, but something rarer: a clear-eyed tale about the costs of war and the men who profit from it.
X-Ray
