blockade

The investment of a town or fortress by sea and land; shutting up all the avenues, so that it can receive no relief.

♦ To blockade a port is to prevent any communication therewith by sea, and cut off supplies, in order to compel a surrender when the provisions and ammunition are exhausted.

♦ To raise a blockade is to discontinue it.

Blockade is violated by egress as well as by ingress. Warning on the spot is sufficient notice of a blockade de facto. Declaration is useless without actual investment. If a ship break a blockade, though she escape the blockading force, she is, if taken in any part of her future voyage, captured in delicto, and subject to confiscation. The absence of the blockading force removes liability, and might (in such cases) overrules right.