Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward,.
Washington,
January 23, 1864.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to you a copy
of a despatch from her Majesty’s consul at New York, informing me of the
reported arrival at that place of fifty-one prisoners, said to be
principally foreigners, taken on board the steam-vessels Antoniquos, or
Antonica, and Dare.
The information which has reached me concerning these individual
prisoners is as yet so incomplete, that if the despatch had related to
them only, I should not so soon have called your attention to it. You
will observe, however, that at the end of it the consul quotes from a
New York newspaper the following passage, purporting to be an extract
from an order recently given by the Secretary of the Navy to the United
States marshal:
“Henceforth British blockade violators will not be released, but
detained, and any orders which you may have received inconsistent with
this are hereby revoked.”
I have recently had, on more than one occasion, the honor to remind you
of the very positive declarations which I have so frequently made to
you, by order of her Majesty’s government, respecting the treatment of
British subjects taken on board vessels captured for breach of blockade;
you will, therefore, easily understand that it has not been without pain
and alarm that I have seen even a report in a newspaper that an order
such as that attributed to the Secretary of the Navy has been issued.
You will also, I am sure, fully comprehend my anxious desire to be
enabled to send, on authority, a contradiction of the report, or a
satisfactory explanation of it, to her Majesty’s government by the first
packet.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most
obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
Mr. Archibald to Lord Lyons.
British Consulate, New
York
January 21, 1804
My Lord: I have the honor to report to your
lordship, that the Unit States supply steamer Newburg arrived here
from Wilmington on Saturday.
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last, bringing, as is reported in the newspapers, fifty-one
prisoners, said to have been captured from the steamers Antoniquos
and Dare. These prisoners were handed over to the custody of the
United States marshal.
I have not been enabled to ascertain the nationality of the Antonica.
I believe her to be a foreign vessel. The Dare was a small British
steamer, and was driven ashore and destroyed while attempting to
violate the blockade at Wilmington. I have to-day made inquiries at
the marshal’s office, and also at the county jail and house of
detention, but cannot discover that any of the crew or passengers of
the Dare have been brought to this port.
In the announcement in the New York Herald of Monday last, of the
arrival of these prisoners, the following statement is made, to
which I beg leave to call your lordship’s attention: “Connected with
this affair, it may be well to state that Mr. Gideon Welles, the
Secretary of the Navy, has sent a letter to the United States
marshal, ordering that henceforth British blockade violators will
not be released, but detained, and any orders which you may have
received inconsistent with this are hereby revoked.”
I have, &c., &c., &c.
E. M. ARCHIBALD.
Lord Lyons, &c.,
&c., &c.
P. S.—I have just received from Mr. J. J. Edgecumber, the capture of
whose vessels the expeditions formed the subject of my despatches of
June 21, and of July 13, 1863, a letter written from the county
jail, stating that he was on board the Antonica, which vessel was
wrecked on the Frying Pan shoals on the 20th ultimo, while on a
voyage from Nassau to Wilmington, and the crew were picked up by one
of the United States blockading vessels. He does not state whether
the Antonica is a British vessel or not.
