Which it's a rehash of old questions/answers from AskHistorians, as seemed to be popular in this thread.

Seeing that there was interest in that thread, I thought I'd do is to post some older answers of mine and see if there's interest in talking about them here. (AskHistorians is great, but it is not a discussion-focused subreddit.) I answer questions about ships and navies from the Age of Sail onward over there. I am not a professional historian (I teach at the college level, but another topic) though I went to graduate school in a history program. My interest in ships and sailing very much stems from our dear Patrick O'Brian and his series.

I thought I might start off by linking to one of my favorite answers on AskHistorians, which is about how a naval blockade would work in the Age of Sail. In particular here, I discussed blockading Brest, how the British attempted to do it during the Seven Years War (known in the colonies as the French and Indian War), the battle of Quiberon Bay, and assorted other naval miscellany:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2bpjog/what_did_a_naval_blockade_look_like_in_the_age_of/

Let me know if you're interested in this sort of thing, or if you have questions about that thread!