Two of the finest blockade runners, sister ships, called the _Don_ and
the _Dee_, met at last with disaster. The _Don_, after running the
gauntlet some ten or twelve times, was captured at sea. She had been
commanded from her first voyage to the one before the last by Captain
Roberts, so-called, really Captain Hobart, of the Royal British Navy,
who later became Hobart Pasha, admiral in chief of the Turkish Navy. He
was a son of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. The _Dee_ was commanded for
three successful voyages by Capt. George H. Bier, formerly a Lieutenant
in the U.S. Navy. At 8 o'clock a.m. February 6, 1864, the U.S.S.
_Cambridge_ on the blockade off New Inlet discovered the _Dee_ from
Hamilton, Bermuda, loaded with pig lead, bacon, and military stores,
bound for Wilmington, ashore and on fire about a mile to the southward
of Masonboro Inlet.
The _Cambridge_ at once boarded the stranded vessel and attempted to
salve her, but the fire was too hot and the ship too deeply embedded
in the sand to haul her off into deep water. She was accordingly
bombarded and abandoned. The _Dee's_ crew escaped to the shore, with
the exception of seven men, who fell into the hands of the Federals. It
is not known whether the _Dee_ ran ashore from accident or design.