"The Trent Affair" Brown Bag Lunch Talk

On November 8, 1861, the USS San Jacinto intercepted the British mail packet ship RMS Trent in the Old Bahama Channel near Cuba. The San Jacinto's executive officer, Lt. D. M. Fairfax with a contingent of marines, boarded the British ship in international waters and removed the Confederate commissioners with their secretaries in route to Great Britain and France. A blatant violation of international law caused a strain on British/U.S. relations which nearly erupted into full-scale war.