As these ports were in neutral
territory, the merchants thought their goods would be safe
against capture until they left the Mexican or West Indian port
on their brief concluding passage to the territory of the
Confederacy. Nassau, then a petty West India town, was the chief
depot of such trade and soon became a great commercial center.
To it came vast quantities of European goods which were then
transferred to swift, small vessels, or "blockade-runners," which
took a gambler's chance and often succeeded in eluding the
Federal patrol ships and in rushing their cargoes safe into a
Confederate port.
Obviously, it was a great disadvantage to the United States to
allow contraband supplies to be accumulated, without
interference, close to the blockaded coast, and the Lincoln
Government determined to remove this disadvantage. With this end
in view it evoked the principle of the continuous voyage, which
indeed was not new, but which was destined to become fixed in
international law by the Supreme Court of the United States.
American cruisers were instructed to stop British ships sailing
between the British ports of Liverpool and Nassau; they were to
use the recognized international rights of visit and search; and
if there was evidence that the cargo was not destined for actual
consumption at Nassau, they were to bring the ship into an
American port to be dealt with by an American prize court.
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