II. Naval Discipline Act, 1866, Sections 38-42 III. Royal Proclamation, May 19, 1866, as to Distribution of VI. Order in Council, April 15, 1854, in furtherance of Her Majesty's Declarations of the 28th March 1854, respect- ing the Trade of Neutrals and British Subjects 118 123 PREFACE. THIS Book is designed for the use of Officers of Her Majesty's Navy in time of war. The Commander of a belligerent Cruiser often finds himself in a perplexity in dealing with a suspected Vessel. The authorities for his conduct are only too numerous; Admiralty Orders, Royal Proclamations, Orders in Council, Acts of Parliament, Treaties, and, last and not least, the International Law, written and unwritten, of Maritime Warfare. The Commander is no lawyer himself, has no lawyer by his side, and has scarcely even time to reflect. He is distracted by different considerations. There is his duty to prosecute the war to the uttermost against the Enemy and the aiders and abettors of the Enemy: there is his interest too to secure a valuable prize under his eye and within his grasp. On the other hand, there is the risk of a mistake. A false step may cost him something of both fortune and professional position; nay, may even involve his Country in a dispute with another Power. In such an emergency an Officer would welcome a Book which directed him, briefly and clearly, what to do, what not to do. It is this service which this little Volume aspires to render. More it does not attempt. Questions which will ultimately have to be dis posed of by the Prize Court, but which do not concern the Officer's duty of the place and hour, are not treated of here. For a like reason argument and illustration by cases, such as are convenient for a lawyer's handbook, are here dispensed with as out of place; and it has been thought enough to give in the shape of foot-notes the reference to the authorities on which the statements in the body of the text are founded. The general form and, so far as possible, the phraseology have been borrowed from the official Instructions furnished by the Admiralty to Commanders of Cruisers engaged in the suppression of the Slave-trade. The arrangement adopted in this Book is as follows: The First Part, after naming the causes of Detention in general terms, prescribes the course which the Commander of a Cruiser has to follow in exercising the powers of Visit, Search, and Detention over any Vessel, that course being the same in all cases alike, whatever may be the cause of Detention. The Second Part treats in detail of the circumstances which constitute the principal causes of Detention. In the Third Part various miscellaneous subjects are considered. The author has much pleasure in acknowledging his very great obligations to Dr. TRAVERS TWISS, Q.C., the Admiralty Advocate, and to Mr. H. C. ROTHERY, the Registrar to the Admiralty Court, who revised the proof sheets of this Manual, and made numerous and very valuable suggestions. INTRODUCTION. ONE difficulty in drawing up a Manual like the present lies in the fact, that in many respects the law of Maritime War is undergoing a transition. On the one hand, the growth of commerce and civilisation1 have a uniform tendency to render less tolerable the extreme exercise of what are called belligerent rights, and gradually to introduce modifications. Some belligerent rights have been temporarily waved by Great Britain, others have been conceded to particular Powers by Treaty, and others again have fallen silently into disuse. And thus it happens 1 A most marked advance in this direction was exhibited in the late war between Austria and Italy (July 1866). For the first time in Naval Warfare, the Merchant Vessels of the Enemy were spared on both sides. This moderation was secured by special agreement between the two Belligerents, and the result of this agreement, coupled with the rule (prescribed by the Treaty of Paris) of "Free Ship, Free Goods," was that the private property of the Enemy at sea was as completely exempt from hostile capture as private property on land. Neutrals also were favourably considered in the Instructions given to the Commanders of Cruisers. Thus Italian Commanders were directed: 1. Not to treat the Master of a Vessel bound to a Blockaded Port as having legal knowledge of the Blockade until special notice of it had been entered on its papers by one of the Blockading Ships of War. 2. To treat as Contraband only such things as, without further manipulation, could serve for immediate Military or Naval Armament. 3. To respect Neutral Convoy. Instead, therefore, of visiting Vessels escorted by a Neutral Ship of War, the Commander of the Italian Cruiser was to limit himself to asking the Commander of the Convoy for a List of the Vessels placed under his protection, and for a declaration that there was no Contraband of War on board of them, on account of or intended for the Enemy. If, nevertheless, the Commander of the Italian Cruiser had reason to suppose that the good faith of the Commander of the Convoy had been imposed upon, he was to communicate his suspicions to the Commander of the Convoy, and leave to him to proceed alone to search the suspected Vessel. B Enemy's that there are parts of Maritime Law which, though not formally, or not completely, abrogated, are now no longer in force, or which at least it would be difficult to put in force. On the other hand, the material changes of modern times,—such as the adoption of Steam Navigation by the mercantile navies of the world, and the development of the art of warfare on land and sea-on land, by the employment of railways, electric telegraphs, &c.; at sea, by, the use of iron and steam in the construction and propulsion of Vessels of War,-require a corresponding increase of vigilance on the part of Belligerents on the High Seas, and inevitably give rise to the claim by them of new rights, which, though covered, equally perhaps with more ancient ones, by the plea of military necessity, have as yet neither received any formal international sanction, nor in practice been strictly defined. Uncertainty being thus liable to arise from these two sources, it may be convenient to call attention to the principal points in the Law of Maritime Warfare which may be called doubtful, and to the manner in which they are respectively dealt with in this Volume. In the first place, then, it has been assumed that whatever belligerent rights Great Britain has once deliberately renounced in deference to civilisation, will not again be revived. Vestigia nulla retrorsum. The parts of Maritime Law which concern such rights are designedly passed over as practically obsolete. It seemed needless to trouble Naval Officers with an elaborate exposition of duties which in all probability they would never be called upon to discharge. Thus the old rule, that Enemy's goods render liable to detention the Vessel that carries them, the enforcement of which used to be one of the chief duties of a Naval Commander, is not to be found in this Manual. The Treaty of Paris (set out in the Appendix, p. 113) is taken as having once for all settled the opposite doctrine that |