Jim,

I don't know about how it was in the Confederate navy (maybe Art can shed some light), but generally race relations were quite different in the US navy and on the seas in general. Because of the dangerous nature of sea faring, and because each ship became its own virtual world, many historians have found that blacks were more integrated and accepted on board since they lived, worked, and often died under the same rough conditions as their white counterparts.

This may have been true in the Confederacy, and I would not be surprised if that was the case on some ships.