The Ships of Rebel Raiders   -  The CSS Advance

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

The Blockade Runners – The CSS Advance

Most blockade runners made a profit by their second voyage; the CSS Advance (CSN Card 67) made 20 such successful runs, making her one of if not the most profitable of all of those ships that ran the Union blockade.   A side-wheel steamer built in Scotland as the Lord Clyde in 1862, she was purchased by the state of North Carolina and renamed in honor of its governor, Zebulan Vance.   She eluded capture on over 40 occasions before her luck ran out on September 10, 1864 off Wilmington, where she was caught by the gunboat USS Santiago de Cuba.  The Union impressed the ship into service, refitting and rechristening her as the gunboat USS Frolic.  She finished out the war, ironically, enforcing the blockade.