A belligerent could in some circumstances send a neutral vessel to a recognized prize court and accept its judgment. Searching British government mailbags or diplomatic papers would have crossed a more serious line by violating sovereign communications. Fairfax avoided that search after a Royal Navy officer concealed the envoys’ papers, and he declined to seize Trent because he lacked enough men for a prize crew. Taking only the passengers and releasing the ship then denied the case the prize-court adjudication that might have made the action legally defensible. The result was an internationally wrongful seizure even though Fairfax had rejected the most provocative parts of Wilkes’s orders.
Notable Point · 24:31-30:21
Prize law, mail bags, and an avoidable escalation
Wilkes's orders exposed the difference between taking a vessel to prize court and interfering with protected British government communications.