Banshee II SIB - 1/700

In Gaelic legend, the Banshee is a female spirit whose shrieking or wailing warns of an impending death in a house.  The Banshee II was a Confederate blockade runner employed by the South during that late stages of the US Civil War.  She was built in Liverpool, England in 1862 and her predecessor, the Banshee, was the first steel-hulled ship to cross the Atlantic.

The Banshee II was launched in 1864 and considered state of the art in ship design, driven by two steam-powered sidewheels that could achieve a remarkable 15 knots.  She was manned with English officers and Confederate pilots and crew.  As it was late in the war when the Banshee II entered the fray, her wartime naval career was short, consisting of a single, harrowing run from Havana, Cuba to Galveston, Texas and back.  

As dawn broke and the ship neared the Texas coast, captain and crew found themselves in close quarters with the Union blockade.  The Union fleet rained fire upon the Banshee II, but the rough waters played havoc with their accuracy.  Miraculously, the Banshee II made it Galveston with only one crewman wounded and the ship suffering only from shell splinters.  Captain, crew, and ship received a hero’s welcome from much of the town that had gathered on the city’s wharf to watch the fireworks.  By the time she reached the Cuban port, the War Between the States was over and the Banshee II’s military career came to an end.

My presentation of the Banshee II suggests her ties to Texas history.  The bottle rests on a small representation of the Galveston Bay Waterfront of the mid 1800’s overlooked by a walnut shape of Texas as a backdrop.  The ship’s hull was layered with aluminum foil as a nod to the uniqueness of the original Banshee II’s steel hull.