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CONVOY
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CONVOY (through the Fr. from See also:late See also:Lat. conviare, to go along with, from Lat. cum, with, and via, way; " convey " has the same ultimate origin [see See also:CONVEYANCE], neither word being connected, as has sometimes been supposed, with Lat. convehere, to carry together), a verb and noun now almost exclusively used in military and See also:naval parlance. As a verb it signifies in the first instance to accompany or to escort; and in the 17th See also:century we even hear of See also:cavalry " convoying " See also:infantry, but its meaning was soon complicated by the growing use of the word " convey " in the sense of " to carry," and as the usual task of an escort was that of accompanying and protecting vehicles containing supplies, the noun " convoy " (Fr. convoi) was introduced and has thence-forward in See also:land warfare meant a See also:train of vehicles containing stores for the use of troops and its guard or escort. Sometimes even the word is found in the meaning of the train of vehicles without implying that there is an escort, so far has the See also:original meaning become obscured; but the See also:idea of military See also:protection is always See also:present, whether this protection is given by a See also:separate escort or provided by the weapons of the drivers themselves. In naval warfare the See also:term is used to describe a method adopted for defending See also:merchant See also:ships against See also:capture. It was usually applied to the vessels to be protected—as for example " the Baltic convoy," or " See also:Captain Montray's convoy." Until the 17th century the See also:English term was " to waft " and the warship employed to guard the traders on their way was called " a wafter." The practice of sailing in convoy for mutual protection was See also:common in the See also:middle ages, when all ships were more or less armed and the See also:war See also:vessel was not entirely differentiated from the trader. Thus the ships of the See also:great See also:German See also:confederation of cities known as the Hanseatic See also:League were required to See also:sail in convoy. So were the six trading squadrons which sailed yearly from See also:Venice. The masters of all the vessels were required to obey the authority of an officer who had the See also:general command. In the 16th century the See also:Spanish See also:trade with See also:America was compelled by See also:law to sail in convoys (jlotas), in See also:order to avoid the danger of capture by pirates to which single ships were exposed. In the 17th and 18th centuries the use of convoy was universal. Dutch, See also:French or See also:British ships were collected at a See also:rendezvous, and were accompanied by warships till they reached the point at which they were compelled to separate in order to go to their various destinations. The See also:main danger was near the enemy's ports. An example of the way the See also:duty was discharged may be found in the See also:Newfoundland convoy. They sailed from See also:England under the direction of a naval officer and the protection of his ships, commonly a See also:forty- or fifty-See also:gun See also:ship with a smaller vessel in attendance. The convoy sailed to the See also:banks of Newfoundland. When they had filled up with stock See also:fish, they were escorted across the See also:Atlantic by the same officer. He accompanied those of them See also:bound to the Mediterranean to the See also:port of See also:Leghorn, and, when they had unloaded and reloaded, saw them See also:home. All cases were not so See also:simple. The ships engaged in the See also:East and See also:West See also:India trade, for instance, sailed together. In the Channel they were protected by the main strength of the See also:fleet. When beyond the Scilly Islands they were See also:left to the care of a smaller force, and continued together till in the See also:neighbour-See also:hood of See also:Madeira, when they separated. Convoys were subject to attack in two forms, by strong squadrons which overpowered the guard, and by privateers, corsairs and isolated cruisers. This latter peril was much increased in the See also:case of British See also:commerce by the reluctance of the merchant captains to obey the naval See also:officers. They were very much inclined to separate from the convoy as they approached their destination in the See also:hope of See also:forestalling rivals. As a natural consequence they were frequently captured by hostile privateers. French naval officers had authority and large See also:powers of See also:punishment over merchant skippers. The British naval officers had not. In 1803-34, on the renewal of the war with See also:France, the British See also:government saw the See also:necessity for regulating convoy more strictly than had hitherto been the case. It therefore passed " an See also:act for the better protection of the trade of the See also:United See also:Kingdom during the present hostilities with France." By this act (the 43rd Geo. III. Cap. 57) all vessels not exempted by See also:special See also:licence were required to sail in convoy and to conform to strict regulations, under penalties of £r000 (or, when the goods included government stores, of 1500) and the loss of all claim to See also:insurance in case of capture. (D. H.) The See also:object of convoying is to attach an See also:official public See also:character to the convoyed ships, i.e. a sort of assimilation of them to the escorting ship or ships of war. Thus See also:European states and jurists hold that the See also:declaration of the See also:commander of the convoy, that there is no See also:contraband of war on See also:board the convoyed ships, pledges the See also:national See also:good faith, and must be assumed to be correct in the same way as it is assumed that the convoy itself is carrying no contraband of war. Great See also:Britain has never taken this view. Down to 1907 she had maintained that it is materially impossible for any neutral See also:state to exercise the necessary super-See also:vision to secure See also:absolute accuracy of the ship's papers. Number 29, however, of the instructions given by the government to the British plenipotentiaries at the See also:Hague See also:Conference of 1907 stated that " H.M. government would . . . be glad to see the right of See also:search limited in every practicable way, e.g. by the See also:adoption of a See also:system of consular certificates declaring the See also:absence of contraband from the See also:cargo. . . ." As the greater includes the smaller, we may assume that, if a consular certificate might suffice to exempt from the exercise of search, the state See also:guarantee of a convoy would certainly suffice. The See also:London See also:Convention on the See also:Laws and Customs of Naval War has laid down the rules as to convoys in the following terms: Neutral vessels under national convoy are exempt from search. The commander of a convoy gives, in See also:writing, at the See also:request of the commander of a belligerent warship, all See also:information as to the character of the vessels and their cargoes, which could be obtained by search.—Art. 61. If the commander of the belligerent warship has See also:reason to suspect that the confidence of the commander of the convoy has been abused, he communicates his suspicions to him. In such a case it is for the commander of the convoy alone to investigate the See also:matter. He must See also:record the result of such investigation in a See also:report, of which a copy is handed to the officer of the warship. If, in the See also:opinion of the commander of the convoy, the facts shown in the report justify the capture of one or more vessels, the protection of the convoy must be withdrawn from such vessels.—Art. 62. (T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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