Excerpt from Report of the Secretary of the Navy: With an Appendix Containing Reports From Officers, December, 1865 When hostilities against the government were commenced in the spring of 186 1, and the ports on our southern coast were ordered to be closed under the form of international blockade, instead of the municipal form of an embargo, the labor, embarrassments, and responsibilities suddenly and unexpectedly imposed upon this department were immensely increased. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.