Deepcrush wrote:Again, why we hated you for so long. England mistaking itself for God.
Easy mistake to make, especially when the Royal Navy was involved.
Wrong, the people in question did commit a crime but that is for a judge to decide.
The crime was committed in British jurisdiction therefore it was for a British judge to decide.
Also, it was an American ship. The leopard had no rights. The Royal Navy has rights, again, in court. The Leopard violated an American ship and helped fuel a war that would later cost thousands of lives on both sides.
A war triggered half a decade later by a blatant US land-grab. And in which the
Chesapeake again got bolshy with the Royal Navy and came second.
I agree that such a thing would have been fair if BOTH sides knew about it. The US was not given such a notice.
The
Chesapeake was - a copy of said orders was sent across along with the request to search the vessel.
They had just left Port of Norfolk and were heading to Baltimore Harbor. Both ships were in sight of land. There were no international waters back then. Even so, the Royal Navy has no rights to mount unlawful attacks in international waters, then or now. The high seas were free for any and all. In modern terms they were in US waters. In the times the were in free waters. The US called on her waters to be only 3 miles out so that ships could incase of storm or trouble, retreat to safety of port. The Leopard should have followed to Fort Carol and awaited the return of any person in question.
The specific orders issued to the Leopard were as followed:
the captains and commanders of His Majesty's ships and vessels under my command are, therefore, hereby required and directed, in case of meeting with the American frigate Chesapeake at sea, and without the limits of the United States, to show to the captain of her this order, and to require to search his ship for the deserters from the before-mentioned shops, and to proceed and search for the same. And, if a similar demand should be made by the American, he is permitted to search for deserters from their service, according to the customs and usages of civilized nations, on terms of peace and amity with each other.
Important bits bolded - the first shows that it applied outside US territorial waters, and the latter shows firstly that reciprocal searches were allowed, and secondly that these stop-and-searches were customarily allowed.