I will have to try and find where all the particular effects are explained in detail, but the Navigation Act of 1817 was not the only means by which the Federal government helped destroy Southern shipping and ship building.
One I remember is by giving US mail contracts to Northern shippers who could then add that money to their bottom line, while the Southern shippers would have to actually compete for the remaining shipping contracts.
I think this material is discussed in detail in that thread I linked to up above.
“Federal government helped destroy Southern shipping and ship building.”
What legislation did the Congress of the United States pass that impacted Southern shipbuilding.
Southern shipbuilding failed to keep up with the changes in ship construction that started in the 1840s. They could still build small and medium sized vessels out of wood with sails. The rest of the shipbuilding industry was converting to iron framed, iron plated and steam driven ships. the ship builders in the South did not have the technology to make the change and were reluctant to make the financial investments necessary to convert their yards for wood hull/sail powered ships to ships built with iron hulls and steam propulsion. The Federal Government had little to do with this set of circumstance.