<P> In the initial phase of the blockade, Union forces concentrated on the Atlantic Coast . The November 1861 capture of Port Royal in South Carolina provided the Federals with an open ocean port and repair and maintenance facilities in good operating condition . It became an early base of operations for further expansion of the blockade along the Atlantic coastline, including the Stone Fleet . Apalachicola, Florida, received Confederate goods traveling down the Chattahoochee River from Columbus, Georgia, and was an early target of Union blockade efforts on Florida's Gulf Coast . Another early prize was Ship Island, which gave the Navy a base from which to patrol the entrances to both the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay . The Navy gradually extended its reach throughout the Gulf of Mexico to the Texas coastline, including Galveston and Sabine Pass . </P> <P> With 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of Confederate coastline and 180 possible ports of entry to patrol, the blockade would be the largest such effort ever attempted . The United States Navy had 42 ships in active service, and another 48 laid up and listed as available as soon as crews could be assembled and trained . Half were sailing ships, some were technologically outdated, most were at the time patrolling distant oceans, one served on Lake Erie and could not be moved into the ocean, and another had gone missing off Hawaii . At the time of the declaration of the blockade, the Union only had three ships suitable for blockade duty . The Navy Department, under the leadership of Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, quickly moved to expand the fleet . U.S. warships patrolling abroad were recalled, a massive shipbuilding program was launched, civilian merchant and passenger ships were purchased for naval service, and captured blockade runners were commissioned into the navy . In 1861, nearly 80 steamers and 60 sailing ships were added to the fleet, and the number of blockading vessels rose to 160 . Some 52 more warships were under construction by the end of the year . By November 1862, there were 282 steamers and 102 sailing ships . By the end of the war, the Union Navy had grown to a size of 671 ships, making it the largest navy in the world . </P> <P> By the end of 1861, the Navy had grown to 24,000 officers and enlisted men, over 15,000 more than in antebellum service . Four squadrons of ships were deployed, two in the Atlantic and two in the Gulf of Mexico . </P> <P> Blockade service was attractive to Federal seamen and landsmen alike . Blockade station service was considered the most boring job in the war but also the most attractive in terms of potential financial gain . The task was for the fleet to sail back and forth to intercept any blockade runners . More than 50,000 men volunteered for the boring duty, because food and living conditions on ship were much better than the infantry offered, the work was safer, and especially because of the real (albeit small) chance for big money . Captured ships and their cargoes were sold at auction and the proceeds split among the sailors . When Eolus seized the hapless blockade runner Hope off Wilmington, North Carolina, in late 1864, the captain won $13,000 ($199,066 today), the chief engineer $6,700, the seamen more than $1,000 each, and the cabin boy $533, compared to infantry pay of $13 ($199 today) per month . The amount garnered for a prize of war widely varied . While the little Alligator sold for only $50, bagging the Memphis brought in $510,000 ($7,809,511 today) (about what 40 civilian workers could earn in a lifetime of work). In four years, $25 million in prize money was awarded . </P>

At the beginning of the civil war the north did not own enough ships to successfully