The Blockade Runners

"The Blockade Runners" (French: Les forceurs de blocus) is an 1865 novella by Jules Verne.^[1] In 1871 it was published in single volume together with novel A Floating City as a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series (The Extraordinary Voyages). An English translation was published in 1874.

"The Blockade Runners"
Short story by Jules Verne
The Delphin crossing the Atlantic. Illustration by Jules Férat
Original title	Les Forceurs de blocus
Country	France
Language	French
Genre(s)	Historical, short story, adventure novel
Publication
Published in	Musée des familles
Media type	Print
Publication date	1865
Chronology
Une ville flottante   Aventures de trois Russes et de trois Anglais dans l'Afrique australe

Plot introduction

The American Civil War plot centers on the exploits of a British merchant captain named James Playfair who must break the Union blockade of Charleston harbor in South Carolina to trade supplies for cotton and, later in the book, to rescue Halliburtt, the abolitionist journalist father of a young girl held prisoner (the father, not the girl) by the Confederates. Verne's tale was inspired by reality as many ships were actually lost while acting as blockade runners in and around Charleston in the early 1860s.

Adaptations

The book was produced as a radio play of the same name in 2006.^[2]