Surface raiders generally had reason to avoid antagonizing neutral powers, although Langsdorff may have assumed Portugal would not constrain him. A pointed aside connects that assumption with the Treaty of Perpetual Alliance and Britain's later wartime access to the Azores. Pre-GPS ocean navigation could easily leave a position uncertain by two or three miles. Near a territorial limit, that ordinary error was enough to keep both the legal claim and the diplomatic consequences contested.
Notable Point · 4:31-5:25
Navigation uncertainty links Portuguese neutrality to the Azores
Langsdorff may have discounted Portuguese objections, but a two- or three-mile navigation uncertainty and Britain's later Azores access gave the dispute wider significance.