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Show BLOCKADE IS ALWAYS DEFIED Brave Sailors Have Ever Been Found Capable of Eluding Any Cordon of War Vessels. Blockading and blockade running Is not a young war measure by any means, a writer in Munsey's says. One of the earliest authentic instances of the practice dates back two centuries before the Christian era. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, commanding a powerful Roman army and an efficient fleet, laid siege to Syracuse, a rich city on the Isle of Sicily. Carthage, Rome's great rival on the north shore of Africa, one of the great sea powers of that time, was not at all pleased with the idea of Rome capturing Syracuse, Syra-cuse, a free city and probably a source of great revenue through trade with Cartilage. Syracuse was a well fortified city, and there seemed to be no immediate prospect of Rome taking it by storm, so Marcellus decided to starve its inhabitants in-habitants into submission. He put a cordon of ships across the entrance to the harbor and arrayed his army on the land side so that no succor could come from without. But he had underestimated un-derestimated the boldness of the Carthaginians. Car-thaginians. There was no question of contraband in those days conditional or other. In their swift, oar-driven galleys the sailors of the African city easily eluded the ships set to watch the port and carried provisions, water and war material into the beleaguered city. So successful were the Carthaginians in getting supplies into the city, running the blockade that had it not fallen through treachery it would have been enabled to hold out indefinitely. While blockades probably had been established estab-lished before on a small scale the blockade of Syracuse is one of the earliest instances where the efficiency of a blockade by sea was of vital importance im-portance in determining the success of war on an important seaport. |