Where was she captured? After capturing more than 30 U.S. Merchant ships, she herself was captured off Bahia, Brazil, on Oct 7, 1864 by the USS Wachusett, which violated international law by seizing her in Brazilian waters. This was not the first instance of this happening off the coast of Brazil, which infuriated the Brazlian government.
She was not captured "off bahia", Capt Napolean Collins took the USS Wachusett into Bahia harbor, where she fired upon the Florida, and then rammed her, before attaching tow ropes, and towing the Florida away. They were chased by Brazilian vessels, but had too great a head start. Collins was court martialled, and sentenced to be reduced to the ranks I think, writing this from memory, but Gideon Welles, Secretary of the US Navy, refused to carry out the sentence, and Collins got away with an act of outright piracy.
The Florida was in Bahia Harbour, her Master and half the crew were on liberty, when Collins rammed her, fired upon her, and then towed her away. In my eyes, an act of outright piracy, no wonder the judges ordered the Navy to hand the Florida back to the Confederates.
The Yankees never cared much for the law - their own or anybody else's. They wanted to hang Mosby as a "guerrilla" who violated their G.O. 100 (a/k/a the "Lieber Code") which delineated what was acceptable in warfare. But in fact, Mosby's actions were within their code while Sherman violated the hell out of it. But nobody was going to bring Sherman up on charges.
I love it when hypocrites make rules, demand that others adhere to those rules whether they agreed to do so or not - and then don't adhere to the rules themselves. Great way to run a country, don't you think? You're always right even when you're wrong and the other fellow is always wrong even when he's right.
Absolutely, the US had to apologise to Brazil, and also release all of the prisoners, who were each given 10 dollars, and instructed to leave the US within 24 hours. Many came to Liverpool.
