Initially, FEW southern owners of cargo vessels wished to give up shipping profitable luxury goods such as clothing, silks, and alcohol. To solve this problem, the Confederate government introduced an approach called the "New Plan" in late 1863. When first implemented, the policy required southern ship owners to set aside one-third of the cargo space on ships, some of which were captained by Confederate naval officers, leaving or entering southern ports for transporting cotton and military supplies. The Confederacy then began selling the cotton overseas and buying supplies with the proceeds, thereby cutting out the middlemen and becoming directly involved in blockade running. The plan supervisor, Colin J. McRae, gained direct control over cargo space on blockade runners and by March 1864 increased the space claimed by the Confederate government to half. Owners who refused to accept a fair rate to transport cotton for sale by the government would have their vessels confiscated. The plan was implemented in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston, but was largely ignored along the Gulf.

The first three moderately successful steam ships to run the blockade out of Mobile were the locally owned Alabama, Cuba, and the Fox, a captured ship renamed the Fanny. Between May 1862 and September 1863, these three ships were responsible for carrying more than 4,000 bales of cotton to Havana, Cuba, for sale to European buyers. Using the figures from one of the Alabama's journeys to Havana in June 1863 as a base figure, with a cotton bale weighing about 510 pounds and cotton selling at $0.32 cents per pound, a little more than $3 million in cotton was exported out of Mobile in the 16 months before Mobile fell. Still, this figure is a meager one-seventh of Mobile's pre-war commerce level. The Alabama, Cuba, and Fanny were lost by mid September 1863, however. The Cuba was burned to prevent her capture on May 19, 1863, while heading toward Mobile; the Alabama was captured on September 12, 1863 by the Union blockade; and the Fanny was burned that same day to prevent her capture.