The review from Amazon.com reviewer
J. Russell Soley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1890 to 1893, was approached by Scribners in 1883 to write this volume of the Naval trilogy for their Civil War series. He delivered a brisk, often thrilling, read that brings much understanding to the unique problems of the naval war.
Soley starts by introducing the many "Jules Verne" wonder weapons of Civil War; some had been around but were tested in battle for the first time, while others were innovations of the war.
Among these were the ram, a ship designed to ram and sink other ships (this was made possible by steam power); torpedo boats which "rammed" with a torpedo attached to a long spar protruding from the bow. Steam also allowed the total abandonment of naval sail tactics. It was possible to return to the tactics of ancient naval battles, when ships were driven by oarsmen rather than the wind. Ironclads were also made possible by steam. These had been tested in Britain and elsewhere, but the Civil War showed decisively that the age of sail was finished. There were endless other types of ships for specific purposes. The "double-ender" could use either end of the ship as the bow. If it became blocked in a narrow bayou or low river, instead of tediously "backing out' it simply used the other bow to exit.
"Torpedoes" (naval mines) came into their own. Again, these had been around, but the South was so weak in naval strength they designed increasingly effective ones torpedoes that bedeviled Union naval forces in rivers and harbors.
The Dahlgren smooth bore could take a much higher charge to throw a cannon ball to great distance with greater impact. The Parrot guns were rifled cannon; the rifling put a spin on the projectile to stabilize it in flight for greater accuracy. On occasion these could knock some ironclads apart.
The naval blockade of the Southern coast was rendered almost a game due to international rules for this. Though not a signatory bound by them, the U.S. found it prudent to respect them for sake of international relations. The first rule was that "paper" blockades were disallowed; you could not simply "declare" a blockade. There must be a viable blockading force in place. Even after accomplishing this, there follows a month's "grace period" for ships to learn of the blockade. Any commerce captured during this period had to be released with a warning.
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