[Non-Sequitur]

Of course it would have been prohibitive since the infrastructure for such an industry did not exist and there is no evidence that anyone down south wanted to foster one. You can complain about economic bondage to the North but with all the agricultural wealth that the south produced they short-sightedly decided to sink it back into plantation agriculture rather than diversify. Your problems were of your own making.

[4CJ]

NS, I'm not disagreeing with you, I think it was short-sighted of the South not to have some ships, if for nothing else to keep the North honest. I'd have to research it myself to see if the federal governement actually had any kind of protectionist policies regarding shipping, but I do think it suspicious that that South had very few ships. But I do agree, with the money the South made they could have built/puchased a fleet.