|
{From the minutes of the
Directors' Meeting of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR,
February 9, 1863} |
| |
| At a meeting of the Board of Directors held Feby 9th
1863 |
| Present: P. V. Daniel Jr President, Messrs
Mumford, Myers, Mills, Robinson & Haxall Directors |
| The President informed the Board that he
had convened them for the purpose of considering and adopting the best
and most effective means of carrying into execution the resolution
adopted at the last meeting in reference to the importation of
supplies. |
| He stated that Capt Jno. M. Robinson, the
agent employed by the Company for that purpose, had been in conference
with the Secretaries of War and the Navy and other prominent
government officials for several days past, with the purpose of
ascertaining their views as to the best and surest method to be
employed for the safe transportation of such supplies as he might
purchase, and requested Capt Robinson, who was present by his
invitation, to make a statement of the result of his interviews to the
Board. |
| Capt Robinson stated that in frequent
consultation held chiefly with the Secretary of the Navy and Major
Gilmer Chief of the Engineer bureau, he had learned that it would be
impracticable to obtain transportation for supplies in Government
vessels, as he had hoped, the Government having no freighting vessels
in foreign ports and relying for transportation of its own
importations on individual enterprize. |
| These gentlemen expressed the opinion
that, the most practicable and at the same time the surest and least
hazardous plan that could be adopted by the Company was to purchase a
swift steamer of as light draught as would be safe for seagoing
purposes, ship its purchases under protection of the British flag to
Nassau and then employ the steamer in transferring them to Confederate
ports in several shipments. An inducement to the purchase of a
steamer, in addition to the certainty of securing transportation, and
one which would in a great measure countervail the objection of the
increased outlay which would be needed for the purchase of such a
vessel, (some $25000 in English currency) lay in the fact that in the
event of the safe arrival of such a steamer in Confederate waters, she
could be readily disposed of at a large advance upon the original
cost. |
| Capt Robinson while he deemed the plan
suggested eminently practical, thought it expedient to make an effort
to induce the Government to become the purchasers of the means of
transportation and thus relieve the Companies of the additional risk
which its purchase by them would involve, before the Board took any definite
action on the subject. |
| It was not without hope that such an
effort, which he proposed to make in an interview with the President
on tomorrow, would not prove wholly fruitless. |
| Mr. Myers offered the following resolution
which on motion was laid on the table: |
| Resolved that the President of this
Company be authorized to give such authority, to this Company's agent
for the purchase of supplies in England, as will enable him to use
such means for transportation as will prove most safe and economical,
taking into consideration the number of Companies uniting with this
Company, whether such means be best ensured by the purchase of a
vessel or of vessels, or otherwise. |