The C.S.S. Florida: Her Building and Operation

Commerce raiders such as the Alabama and the Florida were a successful component of the Confederacy’s naval campaign against the Union. Devices of a lesser navy, these surface cruisers prowled the coastal seas to engage and interrupt vital commerce of their better-equipped, more powerful adversary. The C.S.S. Florida, in just two cruises before her capture, inflicted significant damage to Union cargo and ships, estimated at more than USD 4,000,000. The Florida struggled from the beginning. It had to be financed by a break-away government and built by a neutral Britain, remain supplied by small, out-of-the-way ports of call, and continue on the high seas as a threat to American shipping. Union warships hunting for the Florida caused repeated damage, but the wit and courage of her captains, John Maffitt and Charles Morris, kept her supplied and sound enough to severely weaken American coastal trade. In fact, the U.S. merchant marine fleet was so compromised by its losses to the Confederate raiders and the ensuing high cost of war risk insurance that it never fully recovered its place of prominence. In terms of damage to the economy of the United States, the cruisers were more effective than any other military investment made by the Confederacy. First published in 1965, this new printing offers a popular book in paperback format for the first time.