Ironclads in Action; A Sketch of Naval Warfare from 1855 to 1895 Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ...crossed to England, where she was seized and handed over to the North. In all, the Confederate commerce-destroyers and privateers captured 261 vessels. Almost all these were sailing vessels, indeed the mail vessels, Ariel and Electric Spark were the only steamers taken on the high seas. The loss which fell upon the United States was heavy, but it was not so heavy as it would have been had the Confederates been successful in their attempt at secession, as the bonds of ransom were only to be paid in the event of the independence of the Southern States being acknowledged. Yet these losses, such as they were, ruined American shipping. It had recovered from the blows we dealt it in the war of 1812, and was once more competing with us. The Civil War rid us of the competition. In 1864 Mr. Milner Gibson, speaking at Ashton-under-Lyne, remarked that in 1863 the clearances of British ships from English ports had increased by fourteen million tons, whilst there had been a decrease in American ships engaged in trade with England, amounting to 46 or 47 per cent. It may be said that this decrease was partly due to the universal adoption of iron ships propelled by steam, in which the United States lagged behind, partly to the large number of steamers purchased by the Northerners for war uses, and so taken from trade. Both these causes may have contributed in some degree to the diminution, but the real causa causans of the decline was the action of the Confederate cruisers. On every sea American shipping disappeared, or could only steal to its destination by devious routes. At Singapore Semmes found twenty American ships laid up, and there were numerous transfers of vessels in addition. As free ships make free goods by the Treaty of Paris, whilst free or...