You will assuredly believe that it is not from any want of respect for your opinion, but solely from a desire to avoid future error, that I confess my inability to understand this intimation, or, in the absence of instructions on that head, to see in what direction I am to look for the law bearing on the subject.
The paragraph cited made no distinction between a vessel with cargo and a vessel without cargo; and your Grace leaves me in ignorance whether her character would have been changed if Captain Semmes had got rid of the cargo before claiming for her admission as a ship of war. Certainly, acts had been done by him which, according to Wheaton, constituted a "setting forth as a vessel of war."
Your Grace likewise states, "Whether in the case of a vessel duly commissioned as a ship of war, after being made prize by a belligerent Government without being first brought infra praesidia, or condemned by a Court of Prize, the character of prize, within the meaning of Her Majesty's orders, would or would not be merged in a national ship of war, I am not called upon to explain."
I feel myself forced to ask for further advice on this point, on which it is quite possible I may be called upon to take an active part. I have already, in error apparently, admitted a Confederate prize as a ship of war. The chief authority on International Law, in which it is in my power to refer, is Wheaton, who apparently draws no distinction between ships of war and other ships when found in the position of prizes; and I wish your Grace to be aware that within the last few days the commander of a United States ship of war observed to me that if it were his good fortune to capture the Alabama, he should convert her into a Federal cruiser.
I trust your Grace will see how desirable it is that I should be fully informed of the views of Her Majesty's Government on these points, and that I shall be favoured with a reply to this despatch at your earliest convenience.
Rear-Admiral Sir B. Walker to the Secretary to the Admiralty. January 5, 1864.
I request you will be pleased to acquaint my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that the barque called the Tuscaloosa, under the flag of the Confederate States of North America (referred to in my letter of the 19th of August last), termed a tender to the Alabama, returned to this anchorage on the 26th ultimo from cruising off the coast of Brazil.
2. In order to ascertain the real character of this vessel, I directed the boarding officer from my flag-ship to put the questions, as per inclosure No. 1, to the officer in command, Lieutenant Low, of the Alabama; and having satisfied myself from his answers that the vessel was still an uncondemned prize captured by the Alabama under the name of the Conrad, of Philadelphia, I communicated the circumstances to the Governor of this Colony, who, concurring in opinion with me that she ought to be retained under Her Majesty's control and jurisdiction until reclaimed by her proper owners, for violation of Pier Majesty's orders for the maintenance of her neutrality, I caused the so-called Tuscaloosa to be taken possession of; informing Lieutenant Low, at the same time, of the reason for doing so.
3. Lieutenant Low has entered a written protest against the seizure of the vessel, a copy of which, together with the reply of the Governor, I inclose for their Lordships' information, as well as a copy of all the correspondence which has passed on this subject.
4. Lieutenant Low having informed me that he expects the Alabama shortly to arrive at this place, I have allowed him and his crew to remain on board the Conrad for the present; but should the Alabama not make her appearance I have acquainted him that I will grant him and his officers (probably only one besides himself) a passage to England in one of the packets. The crew he wishes to discharge if there is no opportunity of their rejoining the Alabama.