So at first the blockade amounted to little. But by degrees it
took effect. Ships that had been far away returned, others of all
sorts and sizes were bought, still others were built with the utmost
speed.
Slowly but surely the iron hand of the North gripped the commerce
of the South, and before the end of the war the Southern ports were
shut off from all the world.
This was a disaster for the Southerners, for they depended almost
entirely on their cotton trade with Europe. Now the cotton rotted
on the wharves. There were no factories in the South, for manufactures
could not be carried on with slave labour. So the Southerners depended
entirely on the outside world for clothes, boots, blankets, iron,
and all sorts of war material. Now they were cut off from the
outside world, and could get none of these things.
But the Southerners did not meekly submit to be cut off from the
world. They had hardly any ships of any kind, and none at all meant
for war. But they had possession of the Government navy yard at
Norfolk. There they found a half-finished frigate, and they proceeded
to finish her, and turn her into an ironclad. When finished she was
an ugly looking, black monster with sloping sides and a terrible
iron beak, and she was given the name of the Merrimac.
At this time there were only about three ironclads in all the
world.
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