It can easily be imagined, therefore, that attempting to get in and out of those ports in the latter months of 1864 and the early ones of 1865 was a very different business from the condition of affairs which existed earlier in the war. When the above ports fell into the hands of the Northerners, the blockade, considering the nature of the coast-line and types of vessels employed as blockaders and runners, was to all intents and purposes as effective as could be expected; for the blockading fleet consisted of almost every description of craft, from the old-fashioned 60-gun frigate to the modern "Ironsides" and "Monitors," supplemented by dozens of merchant-steamers converted into gunboats—not very formidable, perhaps, as war-ships, but still dangerous to blockade-runners, especially when fast. The Southerners, on the other hand, were practically without any navy, with the exception of a few old wooden vessels which they seized at Norfolk Navy Yard at the outbreak of the war; and, as they were almost entirely devoid of engineering works, material, or skilled labour, they could do but little to compete with the North upon the ocean. Their naval efforts were chiefly in the direction of supplying themselves from outside sources with commerce destroyers, such as the _Alabama_, _Florida_, _Shenandoah_, _Georgia_, etc., though from the wretched and scanty material which they possessed they succeeded in building two or three formidable ironclads; but their engines and armament were defective, and their crews unskilled. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, the _Merrimac_, one of the old wooden steamers which they had seized at Norfolk, and which they had converted into an ironclad by covering the hull with railway iron, fought a gallant fight in Hampton Roads with the celebrated _Monitor_, after having destroyed on the previous day the _Congress_ and _Cumberland_, two large Northern war-ships. Another ironclad was also improvised by the Southerners at Mobile. She was called the _Tennessee_, and was altogether a more formidable craft than the _Merrimac_, both as regards armament and size, but like the _Merrimac_ was terribly defective in engine power. When Farragut attacked Mobile she did considerable damage to his fleet, and for a time engaged it single-handed, but at last was forced to haul down her flag. The Confederates also built another small ironclad at Wilmington on the same lines as the _Merrimac_ and _Tennessee_, but unfortunately she ran ashore on her passage down the river, in order to attack the blockaders outside, and became a total wreck. In addition to the ships I have mentioned they possessed the _Sumpter_, _Rappahanock_, _Tallahasse_ (steamers), and several sailing vessels; but with these vessels they had no chance against their powerful rivals in actual warfare, although the _Alabama_ and her consorts swept the mercantile navy of the United States from the ocean.