ited States
Navy was having its hardest struggle to do its fivefold duty well.
There was commerce protection on the high seas, blockade along the
coast, cooeperation with the army on salt water and on fresh, and
of course the destruction of the nascent Confederate forces afloat.
But perhaps a knottier problem than any part of its combatant duty
was how to manage, in the very midst of war, that rapid expansion
of its own strength for which no government had let it prepare in
time of peace. During this year the number of vessels in commission
grew from 264 to 427. Yet such a form of expansion was much simpler
than that of the enlisted men; and the expansion of even the most
highly trained enlisted personnel was very much simpler than the
corresponding expansion of the officers. Happily for the United
States Navy it started with a long lead over its enemy. More happily
still it could expand with the help of greatly superior resources.
Most happily of all, the sevenfold expansion that was effected
before the war was over could be made under leaders like Farragut:
leaders, that is, who, though in mere numbers they were no more, in
proportion to their whole service, than the flag as mere material
is to a man-of-war, were yet, as is the flag, the living symbol
of a people's soul.

Commerce protection on the high seas was an exceedingly harassing
affair. A few swift raiders, having the initiative, enjoyed great
advantages over a far larger number of defending vessels. Every
daring raid was trumpeted round the world, bringing down unmeasured,
and often unmerited, blame on the defense. The most successful
vigilance would, on the other hand, pass by unheeded. The Union
navy lacked the means of patrolling the sea lanes of commerce over
millions and millions of desolate square miles. Consequently the
war-risk insurance rose to a prohibitive height on vessels flying
the Stars and Stripes; and, as a further result, enormous transfers
were made to other flags. The incessant calls for recruits, afloat
and ashore, and to some extent the lure of the western lands, also
robbed the merchant service of its men. Thus, one way and another,
the glory of the old merchant marine departed with the Civil War.

Blockade was more to the point than any attempt to patrol the sea
lanes. Yet it was even more harassing; for it involved three distinct
though closely correlated kinds of operation: not only the seizure,
in conjunction with the army, of en