Book excerpt: Abraham Lincoln's announcement of a blockade of southern Confederate ports and the possible seizure of neutral trading ships was met with great alarm in England. Manchester's mills demanded American cotton and other goods that would not wait for the end of the conflict. Enter the blockade runners. What was it like to risk death or imprisonment during the clash of North and South? Thomas Taylor was a 21-year-old Englishman with a taste for adventure and nothing holding him back. The outbreak of war in America interested him greatly and he was soon in the ranks of the runners. In this true sea story, Taylor not only tells of near capture and brushes with death, he tells you what it takes to operate a good blockade running ship. The introduction to this important work was written by none other than Sir Julian Stafford Corbett (1854-1922), the eminent British naval historian and geo-strategist of the 19th and early 20th centuries. His Some Principles of Maritime Strategy is still considered a classic by students of naval warfare and Corbett wrote the official history of Naval operations during World War I. This is to say that Corbett’s opinion of Thomas Taylor’s book as a work of naval art is not to be overlooked or taken lightly. For the first time, this long-out-of-print book is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.