ON this website:
http://historyinfullcolor.com/home/about/I found this interesting info:
This week in the news, a civil war blockade runner has been found off the coast of North Carolina, on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. The vessel has been tentatively identified as the Agnes E. Fry. If it is the Fry, her captain Joseph Fry may have survived running the Union blockade but was executed for blockade running by the Spanish.
In 1873, Joseph Fry was hired to run supplies to aid the Cuban rebellion on the high-speed side-wheel steamer Virginius. He was informed by the U. S. Consol that he would be shot if he was captured. Fry didn't believe it. During the Civil War, captured blockade runners were treat like POWs.
On October 30, 1873, the Virginius was captured. The entire crew was tried by a court martial as pirates and sentenced to death. Fry's letters to his wife, children and attempts to exonerate his inexperienced crew were published. Fry, who became known as "The Cuban Martyr" and 52 men paid with their lives for Fry's misjudgment.
To avoid war over the "Virginius Affair", 91 of the remaining crew members were returned to the US. Spain paid reparations to the families of the Americans executed. Additional money was raised for Fry's wife and seven children.