Neutral Rights and the War in the Narrow Seas (American Revolution)
Neutral Rights and the War in the Narrow Seas (American Revolution)
Blockades have always been employed as a strategy in naval wars. In the simplest of terms, a blockade is nothing more than the use of naval forces to deny an enemy the ability to move ships and goods across bodies of water. Though the general concept of a naval blockade is easy to understand, the conduct of such a strategy not only involves the deployment of warships but also generates a complex set of diplomatic and legal problems. For upon the institution of a naval blockade, questions such as what kinds of goods are contraband? what constitutes a legal blockade? and what are the rights and duties of neutral vessels on the high seas? are raised immediately in admiralty courts and foreign offices by both belligerent and neutral nations.
From the beginning of the American War of Independence in 1775, the Royal Navy, with varying degrees of success, used the weapon of blockade against the American rebels. While this policy brought forth a string of protests from neutrals over the violation of their rights on the high seas.1 It was generally agreed in principle that the British, under international law and the laws of war, had the right to seize the ships and goods of the American rebels as well as warlike materials, such as gunpowder, on board neutral vessels en route to America. However, with the beginning of the naval war with France in 1778, the British instituted blockades and policies that produced diplomatic crises with neutral European powers and a war with Holland.
The sinews of naval power in the age of wooden ships were naval stores. Masts, timbers, planking, tar, pitch, canvas, hemp, and ironware such as nails were required to build and maintain eighteenth-century warships. The main sources of most of these articles in Europe were the Baltic and Scandinavian nations. The British Isles lay like a barrier reef between the major ports and naval bases of France and Spain and the maritime
Blockades have always been employed as a strategy in naval wars. In the simplest of terms, a blockade is nothing more than the use of naval forces to deny an enemy the ability to move ships and goods across bodies of water. Though the general concept of a naval blockade is easy to understand, the conduct of such a strategy not only involves the deployment of warships but also generates a complex set of diplomatic and legal problems. For upon the institution of a naval blockade, questions such as what kinds of goods are contraband? what constitutes a legal blockade? and what are the rights and duties of neutral vessels on the high seas? are raised immediately in admiralty courts and foreign offices by both belligerent and neutral nations.
From the beginning of the American War of Independence in 1775, the Royal Navy, with varying degrees of success, used the weapon of blockade against the American rebels. While this policy brought forth a string of protests from neutrals over the violation of their rights on the high seas.1 It was generally agreed in principle that the British, under international law and the laws of war, had the right to seize the ships and goods of the American rebels as well as warlike materials, such as gunpowder, on board neutral vessels en route to America. However, with the beginning of the naval war with France in 1778, the British instituted blockades and policies that produced diplomatic crises with neutral European powers and a war with Holland.
The sinews of naval power in the age of wooden ships were naval stores. Masts, timbers, planking, tar, pitch, canvas, hemp, and ironware such as nails were required to build and maintain eighteenth-century warships. The main sources of most of these articles in Europe were the Baltic and Scandinavian nations. The British Isles lay like a barrier reef between the major ports and naval bases of France and Spain and the maritime