You will receive a further communication from me on this subject by the
next mail.
_The Duke of Newcastle to Sir P. Wodehouse. March 10, 1864_.
In my despatch of the 4th instant, I instructed you to restore the
Tuscaloosa to the Lieutenant of the Confederate States who lately
commanded her, or, if he should have left the Cape, then to retain her
until she could be handed over to some person having authority from
Captain Semmes, of the Alabama, or from the Government of the
Confederate States, to receive her.
I have now to explain that this decision was not founded on any general
principle respecting the treatment of prizes captured by the cruisers of
either belligerent, but on the peculiar circumstances of the case. The
Tuscaloosa was allowed to enter the port of Cape Town and to depart, the
instructions of the 4th of November not having arrived at the Cape
before her departure. The Captain of the Alabama was thus entitled to
assume that he might equally bring her a second time into the same
harbor, and it becomes unnecessary to discuss whether, on her return to
the Cape, the Tuscaloosa still retained the character of a prize, or
whether she had lost that character, and had assumed that of an armed
tender to the Alabama, and whether that new character, if properly
established and admitted, would have entitled her to the same privilege
of admission which might be accorded to her captor, the Alabama.
Pages:
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539