Chapter thirty-three
Cape Fear River — August 1863Captain Clement Sullivan invited Denning and Marie to the crowded deck of the Hickory Hill. At twenty-four, Sullivan was the youngest Rebel skipper to command a blockade runner, and he was on his fifth run with the ship credited with eight successful runs so far.
The Hickory Hill was in the same class as the Sally, one of the new super runners — three stacks, more than two hundred and seventy-five feet long, and built of strong, lightweight steel. Her cargo tonight was six hundred and fifty bales of the all-purpose Georgia Bowed cotton, one hundred and thirty-five barrels of turpentine, and one hundred and ten one-hundred-pound bags of corn seed. While the crew and Denning took for granted the degree to which the ship was loaded, Marie wa
