I should add that Lieutenant Low has given up the Tuscaloosa (late
Conrad) under protest, which he is about to make in writing, a copy of
which shall be transmitted to your Excellency as soon as received.
_Lieutenant Low, C.S.N., to Sir P. Wodehouse. December_ 28, 1863
As the officer in command of the Confederate States ship Tuscaloosa,
tender to the Confederate States steamer Alabama, I have to record my
protest against the recent extraordinary measures which have been
adopted towards me and the vessel under my command by the British
authorities of this Colony.
In August last the Tuscaloosa arrived in Simon's Bay. She was not only
recognised in the character which she lawfully claimed and still claims
to be, viz., a commissioned ship of war belonging to a belligerent
Power, but was allowed to remain in the harbour for the period of seven
days, taking in supplies and effecting repairs with the full knowledge
and sanction of the authorities.
No intimation was given that she was regarded in the light of an
ordinary prize, or that she was considered to be violating the laws of
neutrality. Nor, when she notoriously left for a cruise on active
service, was any intimation whatever conveyed that on her return to the
port of a friendly Power, where she had been received as a man-of-war,
she would be regarded as a "prize," as a violater of the Queen's
proclamation of neutrality, and consequently liable to seizure.
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