ARTICLE XV.
No subject of his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, shall take a commission or letter of marque (to arm any vessel or vessels, for the purpose of acting as a privateer against the said United States, or any of them, or against their subjects, people, or inhabitants, or against their property, or that of any among them) from any Prince whatever, with whom the said United States shall be at war. In like manner no citizen, subject, or inhabitant of the said United States, or of any of them, shall demand or accept of any commission or letter of marque (to arm any vessel or vessels, to cruise against the subjects of his said Majesty, or any of them, or their property) from any Prince or State whatever, with whom his Majesty shall be at war; and if any one of either nation should take such commissions or letter of marque, he shall be punished as a pirate.
ARTICLE XVI.
In case the vessels of the subjects and inhabitants of one of the two contracting parties should approach the coasts of the other, without however designing to enter into the port, or to discharge the cargo, or to break bulk after having entered, they shall be at liberty to depart, or to pursue their voyage without molestation, in the same manner as is practiced by the vessels belonging to the most favored nations.
ARTICLE XVII.
The liberty of navigation and commerce, mentioned in the 7th article of this treaty, shall extend to all kinds of merchandises, excepting those which are designated by the name of contraband. Under this name of contraband, or prohibited merchandise, are only to be comprehended, arms, cannon, powder, matches, pikes, swords, lances, spears, halberts, mortars, petards, grenades, saltpetre, fusils, balls, bucklers, helmets, drums, coats of mail, and other arms of that kind fit to arm soldiers, swivels, shoulder belts, horses with their equipages, and all other instruments of war whatever, excepting always the quantity that may be necessary for the defence of the vessel and such as compose the crew. All other effects and merchandise not expressly designated above, of whatever kind or denomination they may be, and however fit they may be, even for the building, the repairing, and equipment of vessels, or for the making of any machine or warlike instrument by land or by sea, shall not be considered as contraband, and they may consequently be transported and conducted in the freest manner by the subjects of the two contracting parties to places belonging to the enemy, excepting, nevertheless, such as shall be actually besieged, blocked up or invested, and such shall only be considered so, where the vessels of the power that attacks shall be so near, and posted in such a manner, as that there shall be evident danger to enter.
ARTICLE XVIII.
The passports or sea letters, which shall prove the property of the neutral vessels, according to the tenor of the 8th Article of the present treaty, shall be prepared and distributed according to the model which shall be agreed on. Every time that the vessel shall have returned to its own country, it shall be furnished with new passports of the like kind; at least, these passports must not be of an older date than two years after the time the vessel has returned last to its own country. Moreover, the vessels being loaded, must be provided with such certificates, or manifests, or other public documents, as are commonly given to vessels which depart from the ports from whence they have last sailed, containing a specification of the cargo, of the place from whence the vessel has departed, and that of her destination, in order that it may be known whether there are any contraband effects on board of the vessels, and whether they are destined to carry them to an enemy's country, or not. If the names of the persons to whom the effects on board belong, are not expressed in the said documents, this omission shall not, however, give cause for confiscation, as the freedom of the vessel secures the freedom of the effects.
ARTICLE XIX.
Should it happen that the ships or vessels of one of the two contracting parties, or of their subjects, should strike against the rocks, or strand, or be shipwrecked on the coast of the other, the respective subjects shall enjoy both for their persons and their ships and vessels, effects and merchandise, all the aid and assistance possible, as the inhabitants of the country, and shall only pay the same expenses and duties, which the proper subjects of the State on whose coasts they shall have stranded or have been shipwrecked, are subject to in similar cases.