As political storm-clouds gathered over the Republic, with all signs pointing toward an open, armed conflict (with no end in sight), speculators, both North and South, began to realize the massive potential that such an event could bring. Three brothers, surnamed: "Crenshaw," led by their eldest: William, were among that crowd. Having already established themselves as a respectable shipping company prior to the War of Northern Aggression, the Crenshaws, who also held huge milling concerns in Richmond, not only tendered their services to the newly formed Confederate States, but set about building additional sleek, low-profile crafts that could swiftly transport sorely needed supplies and war materiel from the Caribbean through the Northern Blockade and into Southern Ports. From cloak-and-dagger movements across Europe and Great Britain to hair-raising dashes across the lower Atlantic, the Crenshaw Brothers realized obscene wealth, and loss, beyond their wildest dreams. This is their story.