Appendix C:
Instructions from Flag-officer Goldsborough to Offi-Cers commanding blockading vessels.
All officers commanding vessels employed on blockading service belonging to the squadron under my command, are to be governed by the following general directions in the discharge of their duties:
1. Duly notify neutrals of the declaration of the blockade, and give to it otherwise all the publicity in your power.
2. The blockade must be strict and absolute, and only public armed vessels of foreign powers are to be permitted to enter the ports which are placed in a sate of blockade.
3. Protect our commerce from the depredations of privateers, and, as a matter of course, capture them and all other vessels of the enemy whenever you can do so without being seduced away from your station.
4. A lawful maritime blockade requires the actual presence of an adequate force stationed at the entrance of the port, sufficiently near to prevent communication.
The only exception to this rule arises out of the occasional temporary absence of the blockading vessels, produced by accident, as in the case of a storm, which does not suspend the legal operation of a blockade, and to take advantage of such an accidental absence is a fraudulent attempt to break the blockade, and will justify the application of penalties.
5. A neutral or foreign vessel, proceeding toward the entrance of a blockaded port, is not to be captured or detained if she shall not have received previously from one of the blockading squadron a special notification of the existence of the blockade.
This notification must be inserted in writing on the register and muster-roll of the neutral vessel by the cruiser which meets her, anti it should contain the announcement, together with statements of the day and the latitude and longitude in which it was made.
