Separate Union and Confederate navies after the Civil War era

If the Union and Confederacy remained separate, how would their navies and foreign relationships differ?

The North would likely have the stronger modern fleet, while the South would depend on British trade and face growing diplomatic isolation over slavery.

The panel expects the industrial North to field the more technologically advanced fleet, while a separate Confederacy would apply more pressure in the Caribbean and South America. A participant questions whether a Confederate state could survive a prolonged Northern embargo. The reply distinguishes an embargo from a naval blockade: continued trade with Britain could replace dependence on Northern industry with dependence on British suppliers. British abolitionism would nevertheless make support for a slave state politically difficult. The discussion identifies a Union declaration of war on Britain as its preferred explanation for British alignment with the Confederacy. It connects that scenario to Seward's idea of using a foreign war to reunite the country, which Lincoln rejected. British blockade and industrial supplies to the South are proposed consequences within that scenario, rather than an inevitable outcome of Southern independence.