“What would have been the artificial price increase (tariff) on British made steam engines?”
What does that have to do with anything? In my post 1019 I ALREADY posted a source detailing shipbuilding in New Orleans and the fact they could source steam engines locally!
“Five major maritime steamers were built in Louisiana during the 1850s and 1860s...In 1860 the state possessed ten shipyards and two firms specializing in ship carpentry.” The author includes examples of ships by name, their sizes, and a local manufacturer of steam engines for the marine trade.”
Well if that's true, then BroJoeK's argument for why the Southern ship building industry went bad is clearly wrong.
But again, these weren't ocean going vessels, which is where I suspect the real profitability was.