As has been stated, the contraband goods are confiscated by the captor.  The vessel, however, must be captured while the guilty goods are still on board; to seize the proceeds after the cargo has been sold and landed is not allowable, though it has sometimes been done.  If the ship belongs to the same owner as the forfeited goods, it, too, is confiscated; otherwise it goes free after the goods are taken off.

It is very important to know just what articles are contraband and what are not; but this is often hard to decide.  There is no question about weapons, military equipments and ammunition.  These are plainly contraband, and the materials from which they are made are classed with them whenever they seem intended for military uses.  Thus sulphur and saltpeter are always contraband.  The detached parts of cannon and naval engines do escape by the trick of separation.

Cloth is not contraband in itself, but if of a quality evidently designed for the manufacture of uniform it would probably be seized.  Horses are so useful in war that most nations treat them as contraband—­though, oddly enough, Russia has never done so.  Still more objectionable, nowadays, is coal, which will never be allowed to reach the bunkers of hostile warships if it can be prevented.  This shows plainly how uncertain and changeful is the list, for fifty years ago coal was as free as provisions, though even food must not be run through the lines of a blockade.

Articles, such as coal, which are of great value in war, but are also largely used for peaceful purposes, are called “occasional contraband” and their seizure has given rise to endless disputes.  There is no justice in treating them as contraband except when they are obviously destined for hostile use.  Sometimes, in doubtful cases, such goods, instead of being confiscated, are seized and paid for to prevent their reaching the enemy.  This is called “pre-emption;” but, fair as it seems, there is much danger that it will be made a pretext for appropriating goods which ought to go quite free, and the practice is generally condemned.

Search at sea is extremely annoying, and ships entirely innocent of contraband are often subjected to great inconvenience.  That must be endured; to attempt to resist or escape would make them liable to confiscation, whatever their cargo might prove to be.  Only properly commissioned vessels, however, are entitled to hold up merchantmen for this purpose.  Another kind of meddling in war for which a neutral citizen may be punished by confiscation, but for which his government is not held responsible, is blockade running.