"A masterful account of Confederate naval strategy and personnel . . . [and] the response of Britain to the efforts of the Confederacy to acquire a navy in Britain and thus traverse Britain's neutral obligations." —American Historical Review

This book, originally issued in 1970, describes the frustrated, faltering, and sometimes heroic attempts of the Confederacy to circumvent British neutrality and build a navy in Great Britain during the American Civil War. The story possesses many of the elements of good fiction: there are the sharply rendered principal actors; the suspense and narrative excitement of the adventures of the Southern raiders; and the cunning appraisals of diplomatic intrigues, maneuverings, and oversights. This is a readable and illuminating account of the diplomatic maneuverings behind the Confederacy's failed attempt to enlist British aid for the secessionist cause.