Why did the Union find it difficult to maintain the blockade to control Southern ports?

Answer 1

During the American Civil War, the Union found it difficult to maintain its naval blockade of the South for several reasons. Initially, its naval forces were not numerous enough to cover all of the major and minor ports along the lengthy coastline of the South. Even later, with greater naval forces employed, the Union was unable to blanket all of the many inlets, bays, estuaries, and waterways utilized by Southern blockade-runners, which often demonstrated great skill in evading Union warships.

Answer 2

Blockade-runners - swift, narrow vessels that could slip in and out of the smaller ports.

But generally, the Northern blockade was highly successful in its aim, which was to prevent the South from exporting its plentiful cotton in exchange for war-supplies.

Answer 3

The Confederate seacoast was thousands of miles long with many small yet possible ports from which to import and export supplies. It was true that the larger, well known ports were identifiable and were valuable because of railway connections leading inland or river ports that also were connected to not only the main river but its tributaries as well.Union blockading ships were subject to bad weather conditions, and nightfall made privateers "invisible". Unknown dangers were always lurking nearby, whether from a sleek warship such as the CSS Alabama, or from torpedoes that were large enough to sink even large vessels.

Union ship captains wanted to provide the best efforts possible, however, blockading ships required maintenance, and refueling. They lacked radar and sonar, of course, and ship to ship communications were always subject to being impossible due to the fact, unlike on land, there was no sea "telegraph lines".

Answer 4

In addition to other valid problems encountered by Union blockaders were the fact that many ships lacked the necessary speed to capture speedy privateers. Bad weather also hindered blockading efforts along with the fact that cargo ships converted blockading navy ships were unable to carry the heavy artillery required to fire upon privateers. Constant docking for repairs was another problem. It is estimated that at given point in time as many of one third of Union blockaders were at port being repaired or being refueled.
Blockading commanders were constantly appealing for more ships, and when assisting army activities, navy ships had to constantly shift vessels from point to point. In most cases, Southern ports were able to increase traffic whenever the Union navy shifted even a few ships from blockading duties. The blockading squadrons also consumed vast amounts of coal. This meant frequent refueling and therefore time away from blockading duties. Also, this process was impeded by the fact that Union coaling stations were often out of coal themselves, causing more delays.