shipstamps.co.uk

From the stamp I got the following:

CSS OLD DOMINION was a representative of the very profitable and highly hazardous occupation of blockade-running. The Confederates were outnumbered and out gunned, but the daring rebels fought back courageously, slipping runners through the Union net. Southern raiders traveled halfway around the world in search of Northern merchantmen. OLD DOMINION is pictured above in an unidentified port.

If the vessel depict on the stamp is a blockade runner, there is a blockade runner under the name OLD DOMINION, which vessel is pictured on the stamp I think is the blockade runner and not the one built in 1872, she for sure is never used in the blockade running business. The stamps of this set depict all ships used in the time of the American Civil War.

Built as a paddle steamer under yard No.106 by Caird & Company at Greenock, Scotland, for Bristol General Steam Navigation Co., Bristol, U.K.
31 October 1863 launched under the name ALFRED.
Tonnage 531 gt, 402 nt, dim. 224.2 x 26.6 x 12.6ft, (as a blockade runner)
One 2-cyl oscillating steam engine 240 nhp.
April 1864 delivered.


Before she could be put into service on the company’s Irish trade an offer to purchase the vessel was made, in May 1864 by George Campbell, Dunoon, Scotland and Henry W.R.Collis, London. They were acting for the Virginia Importing and Exporting Company, which owned also the CITY OF PETERSBURG

When the ALFRED arrived in Bristol the U.S. Consul there reported the sale and commented “This is one of the finest vessels that has entered this port (Bristol) and one of the fastest: she operated at twenty knots on trials”

Renamed in OLD DOMINION and used as a blockade runner for the Virginia Importing and Exporting Company.

Arrived at Wilmington, North Carolina on 28 June 1864 from Bermuda, sailed 15 July bound for Bermuda.
Made an other voyage from Bermuda and arrived on 10 August 1864 again in Wilmington, North Carolina.
An other voyage that year was from Halifax, arrived 21 November 1864 at Wilmington, North Carolina, sailed again on 15 December 1864 for Halifax.
During one voyage she was hit by a shell which killed one officer.
She was used in the blockade running till February 1865. She made six successful runs in and back out through the blockade.
She survived the Civil War, and returned to normal commercial use in 1865.
She returned to the UK and was reregistered as SHEFFIELD for the Liverpool and Dublin Steam Navigation Company Ltd.
1867 Bought by Lancashire & Yorkshire and London & North-Western Railway Company and renamed PRINCE ARTHUR.
She was bought by the company to fill the gap, till new ships were delivered, the company used her in the Fleetwood to Belfast and Londonderry service.
In the seventies she was sold to T. Seed, Liverpool

Scrapped in 1885/86.

Grenada 2002 $1.50 sg?, scott?

Source: Lifeline of the Confederacy. Blockade Running During the Civil War by Stephen R. Wise. Info received from Mr. John D. Stevenson, Ian Buxton and Kevin Foster via MARHST-L. Railway and other Steamers by Duckworth & Langmuir.
http://www.clydebuiltships.co.uk