At he breakout of the Civil War, Taylor was a twenty-one year old clerk in a Liverpool shipping time. As the war progressed the North applied a crippling blockade against both military and commercial vessels attempting to reach Southern ports. This is Taylor's account of running the blockade, and of the grand scheme he devised to counter it. As Julian Corbett, an authority on British naval history, tells us in the introduction to hits interesting volume, "Taylor's work ... must not be taken as a mere records of personal adventure, however absorbing it be found from this point of view. As a picture of exciting escapes, or coolness and resources at moments of acute danger, of well-calculated risks, boldly accepted and obstinately carried through, it has few rivals in recent sea-story; but its deeper value ..." because "not only did he run the blockade personally a greater number of times than anyone else, but ... because "he was the chief organizer of a great and systematized attack on the Northern blockade, such as the work had never seen before." Thomas E. Taylor ISBN: 9781556134586 101-T0458
