Block
a pulley, or a system of pulleys rotating on a pintle mounted in its frame or shell with its band and strap. There are many kinds of blocks, as a pulley block, a fiddle block, a fish block, a fly block, a heart block, a hook block, etc. A block and tackle is the block and the rope rove through it, for hoisting or obtaining a purchase.
BLOCKADE. To blockade a port is to close the port to the entrance and exit of all traffic by sea. The right to establish a blockade exists only in time of war and may be exercised only by a BELLIGERENT (q. v.) and only against the ports of the opposing belligerent. Its purpose is to cut off the communications of the blockaded enemy and to prevent him from receiving supplies or re-enforcements and from engaging in commercial or military exchanges of any kind. The restrictions of a blockade weigh heavily not only upon the blockaded belligerent, but upon the neutrals desiring to trade with him. In the interest of such neutrals, the limitations and restrictions provided by international law are many and are strictly enforced by the "prize courts" which determine the validity of captures of neutral ships in time of war. A blockade, to be legal, must be announced with such publicity BLOCKADE as shall insure its reaching all interested neutrals, and must be maintained by such forces and in such manner as shall make it effective. An "effective" blockade has been defined as one which results in serious danger of the capture or destruction of any vessel attempting to violate it. The mere fact that a vessel succeeds in passing the line of blockading ships does not prove that the blockade is not effective. But if entrance or exit can be made with something approaching impunity, the blockade is not legal and no penalty will lie against a ship charged with violating it.
Violation of blockade is not a crime, even in the eyes of the belligerent blockader; nor are the persons found on board a ship which is captured while attempting to "run" the blockade subject to treatment as prisoners of war. The ship and cargo are, however, subject to confiscation. To this rule there are modifications. A neutral ship which is actually in a port when the notification of blockade is received is allowed a reasonable time to withdraw, without penalty. Similarly, a ship which has sailed for a certain port which is not blockaded at the time of the sailing but which is placed under blockade before the ship in question reaches it, is not subject to penalty for attempting to enter the port in good faith and while still in ignorance of the blockade. Such a ship is not permitted to enter, but is told of conditions and directed to withdraw. If she again attempts to enter, she is a lawful prize if captured. Simiempts to enter, larly, if it can be proved that the ship after sailing has received news of the blockade, as may well happen in these days of radio communications, she is a lawful prize if captured while attempting to enter. Still further, a ship which sails for a port known to be blockaded is a lawful prize if captured at sea while thousands of miles distant from the port.
The intent to violate the blockade is in fact to violate it. Conversely, a vessel which has successfully passed the blockade outward bound is a lawful prize if captured before reaching her port port of actual, not alleged, destination. The taint of violated blockade adheres to the cargo even though it has been transferred to another vessel, if the transfer has been made with a view to evading the penalty. During the American Civil War, it was a common practice for British ships with cargo destined for blockaded Confederate ports to clear for Nassau or Bermuda, British ports near the Confederate coasts, and from there to begin what they proposed to regard as a new voyage to the nearest Confed- BLOCKADE erate port. Thus during the long run across the Atlantic, they counted themselves safe from capture because bound for a British port and in danger only during the short run from Nassau, for example, to the coast of Georgia or Florida. Similarly, small fast vessels loaded with Confederate cotton would slip out of port, often in a fog, and if they succeeded in eluding the blockading forces would make a dash for Nassau and there trans-ship their cargo to other vessels which then sailed for England, claiming immunity from capture as British ships bound from one British port to another. To meet this subterfuge, the United States courts announced the doctrine of "continuous voyage," in which it was held that a cargo bound to or from a blockaded port did not lose the taint of violating the blockade either by breaking its voyage at an intermediate port or by transfer to another vessel. This doctrine was ultimately accepted by the British authorities as sound and is now a recognized principle of international law.
The pressure of a blockade, if conditions are such that it can be made complete, is often more compelling than the more directly exerted pressure of a military force. The blockade of the Confederacy during the Civil War practically sealed every port from Wilmington, N. C., to the mouth of the Rio Grande; and the South, thus thrown back upon its own very limited agricultural, industrial, and financial resources, was reduced to submission, not alone, as is generally supposed, by the victories of the Northern armies, but to almost a greater degree by the naval blockade. It was the blockade of greater degree by the pressure of the by Germany by the Allied navies, not the successes of the Allied armies, that gave In each case, four years was required pressure of the the Allies the victory in the World to bring about the exhaustion of the blockaded country, but in each case the end was inevitable from the beginning.
And it is by the threat of blockade, disguised under the term "economic sure," that it is proposed, in the latest plan for world peace, to compel governments to submit their grievances to arbitration. During the recent World War, the laws of blockade like those of "visit and search," "contraband of war," and many others of the laws of warfare on the sea as previously established in international law, were modified arbitrarily to suit the convenience of the parties to the war, under the plea that changed conditions made it impracticable to adhere to the old laws. It is true that BLODGET many new conditions arose which had never been foreseen and that some deviation from the letter of the law became, if not altogether justifiable, at least expedient and inevitable. It is to be hoped that a new Hague Conference may be assembled in the not distant future and new rules drawn up, if such are found desirable, covering many questions growing out of the war, and among them the question of blockade.