him in support of it, and the ... evidence invoked ... goes ... to establish that the cargo of the Springbok, containing a considerable portion of contraband, was never really and bona fide destined for Nassau [the alleged destination], but was either destined merely to call there, or to be immediately transshipped after its arrival there without breaking bulk and without any previous incorporation into the common stock of that colony, and to proceed to its real port of destination, being a blockaded port."[5]

[Footnote 4:  Sessional Papers of the House of Commons, Correspondence respecting the Seizure of the British Vessels “Springbok” and “Peterhof” by United States Cruisers in 1863, Miscl.  No.  I (1900), C. 34]

[Footnote 5:  Sessional Papers of the House of Commons, p. 39.]

This case is often cited as containing an application of the doctrine of “continuous voyages” to contraband per se.  But it seems that the primary question was not one of contraband.  The guilt of the ship lay rather in the intention, presumed upon the evidence, that a breach of an actual blockade was ultimately designed.  The Supreme Court in reviewing the decision of the lower court said:  “We do not refer to the character of the cargo for the purpose of determining whether it was liable to condemnation as contraband, but for the purpose of ascertaining its real destination; for we repeat again, contraband or not, it could not be condemned if really destined for Nassau, and not beyond, and, contraband or not, it must be condemned if destined to any rebel port, for all rebel ports are under blockade."[6] In other words, the decision was upon presumption and not upon the evidence in the case; upon the presumption that a breach of blockade was premeditated and not upon the ground that the cargo was contraband.  The fact that the cargo was of a character which did not seem likely to be incorporated into the stock in trade of the Nassau population gave the judges whatever justification there was for the presumption that the goods were intended to be transshipped without breaking bulk.  A recent English writer, Mr. Atherley-Jones, who criticises this decision of the Supreme Court of the United States as a verdict based upon the principle of the expediency of the moment and not upon the usual rules of evidence, admits that if a vessel sails with the intention of violating a blockade there is no question of the character of the port from which she sets out but insists that there is no necessity in such a case to apply the doctrine of “continuous voyages,” If it can be proved, he says, that she is going to a blockaded port, it does not matter whether she is going to a neutral one or not, but it must be made clear that she is going to a blockaded one.  He points to the fact that suspicion can never prove this apart from the ship’s papers, the admission of the ship’s company and the situation and course of the vessel.  His view of the case is that the Supreme Court as well as the lower courts of, the United States “accepted well founded surmise as to a vessel’s destination in lieu of proof,” and he adds, “the danger of such a departure needs no further comment."[7]