harbor.

In other words, the _Vesuvius_ was ordered to "run the blockade."

In times of war, an enemy will often blockade a port by stationing big
ships in such positions that they may prevent any vessels from entering or
leaving the port, just as the combined fleets of Europe are preventing the
Greek fleet, under Prince George, from entering the harbor of Canea.

In our late war the harbor of Charleston was actually blockaded, and
vessels were regularly employed as blockade runners, many of them getting
through without difficulty, and many having hair-breadth escapes.

The steamers selected to run the blockade in war times were light, swift,
and built so that they lay very low in the water. They were painted a dull
gray color, so that they could not be seen at a distance; their funnels
were made like telescopes, so that they could be shut up, and be little
higher than the deck, when the moment for actually running the blockade
arrived. They burned smokeless coal, and could blow their steam off under
water, so that it was very hard to discover them, and on dark nights they
could often slip by the watching vessels without being observed.

Admiral Bunce thought that the search-light system which is in use on all
our war-vessels would make it extremely difficult for a blockade runner to
pass a modern blockade, and it was to test this that the game of blockade
running was tried off Charleston.

When all was in readiness for the game to begin, the _New York_, which was
the flagship, sent up a rocket, warning the other vessels to be on the
lookout for the blockade runner.