Lincoln's Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months that Gave America the Emancipation

[Thomas Thorne]

Both the British and U.S governments were aware of the existence of the Laird rams as early as June 1862. At first they were believed to be Alabama type commerce destroyers but soon their true nature as ships capable of sinking Union warships maintaining the blockade of Southern ports was known.

British efforts to prevent men of war being fitted out in British shipyards were hampered by the provisions of their Foreign Enlistment Act of 1861 which was interpreted in such a way as to require any ship built in British ports had to actually be completed ,leave port, be modified to add on warship characteristics and crew ,and act as a man of war before its builders could be found in violation of the law.

American efforts to forestall the menace of the Laird Rams included an Act of Congress granting the President authority to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal. American statements that these actions were intended only against Confederate warships fooled no one in England who realized they were hunting licenses against the British merchant marine in a third Anglo-American war.
Tom