Blockades naval

Simpson was a Bathurst Research Student from 1934 to 1936, following which, with a Travelling Scholarship, she spent 1937 to 1939 undertaking research at the University of Vienna. Her initial research had been in the field of optical rotary dispersion and circular dichroism, but she discovered that she found spectroscopy much more interesting. Before the Second World War, she studied the spectra of small molecules in the vacuum ultraviolet but with the onset of war, she shifted to infrared spectroscopy. This technique was used to analyse samples of enemy fuels for the Air Ministry, in particular to identify the use of synthetic oils in place of natural oil, which, because of the naval blockades, was in very short supply in Germany. 

FIGURE 9.3. Built at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1860, this 747-ton side-wheeler was originally used for oommeroial purposes. Seized by Louisiana when war broke out in April 1861, the EUa and Annie was known to carry pharmaceutical cargoes and became one of the Confederacy s most successful blockade-runners until her capture on November 9, 1863. Photo courtesy of the Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, Washington Navy Yard. 

Samuel Pellman Boyer, Naval Surgeon Blockading the South, 1861-1866 The Diary of Samuel Pellman Boyer, edited by Elinor Barnes and James A. Barnes (Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1963), p. 219. 

In order to understand the medicinal situation in the Civil War, the critical nature of naval operations must be appreciated. Bern Anderson s By Sea and by River The Naval History of the Civil War (1962 reprinted, New York Da Capo Press, 1989) is a good general naval history of the war that has stood the test of time. Especially helpful for understanding the extent and character of the Union blockade and the privateers who sought to elude it are two books Stephen R. Wise, Lifeline of the Confederacy Blockade Running During the Civil War (Columbia University of South Carolina Press, 1988) and Ivan Musicant, Divided Waters The Naval History of the Civil War (New York HarperCollins, 1995). 

The idea of bringing a country to its knees by inducing wholesale starvation was not original. The British, for example, had used a naval blockade against the Germans in the First World War with just such an intention. But, as the authors of the post-war paper pointed out, here was a weapon which would be more speedy than blockade and less repugnant than the atomic bomb . They also foresaw ... their possible use for the purposes of internal security within the Empire, e.g. for the destruction of food supplies of dissident tribes in order to control an area. ., 67... 

Keywords Law of naval warfare Warships Submarines Unmanned maritime systems Submarine communications cables Hospital ships Merchant vessels Methods and means of naval warfare Naval mines Torpedoes Blockade Exclusion zones Naval bombardment Protected persons... 

The rules of the Paris Declaration (1856) and the London Declaration (1909) on naval blockades have more or less survived, although the modem weapons technology has made the establishment and enforcement of a close blockade virtually impossible. Military manuals and contemporary State practice provide ample proof of the continuing validity of the traditional mles. ... 

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