This was a new Confederate steamer built abroad on the most approved
lines for the Confederate Government. She was a handsome iron propeller
of about 500 tons, camouflaged, as were all blockade runners, to
decrease her visibility. The usual method was to paint the hull and
smoke funnels a grayish green to correspond with the sea and sky
and the coast-line sand dunes, which often made them invisible even
at close range. There were two Federal cruisers most dreaded by the
blockade runners because of their great speed: the _Connecticut_ and
the _Fort Jackson_. The former made many prizes. At daylight, the
morning of September 23, 1863, when about fifty miles east by north of
New Inlet, the _Phantom_ was discovered by the _Connecticut_ standing
to the eastward. The _Phantom_ was bound from Bermuda for Wilmington
with a very valuable cargo of Confederate arms, medicine, and general
stores. She had evidently made a very bad landfall too far to the
northward and eastward at daylight and was running away from the land
until darkness would help her into Cape Fear River, when she would face
the fleet again. But the _Connecticut_ gave chase at her top speed
and after four hours' vain effort to escape, the _Phantom_ suddenly
hauled in and ran ashore near Rich Inlet, where she still lies. The
crew escaped in their own boats, after setting the _Phantom_ on fire.
The Federals attempted to put out the fire and salve the _Phantom_, but
failed to do so.