Interception of RMS Trent
- When
- November 8, 1861
- Where
- Old Bahama Channel (unconfirmed legacy hint)
USS San Jacinto fired shots across the bow of RMS Trent, forcing it to stop and allowing the arrest of two Confederate envoys as contraband of war.
On November 8, 1861, USS San Jacinto met the Trent and fired two shots across its bow, forcing it to stop. Captain Charles Wilkes removed James Murray Mason and John Slidell as contraband of war. This action sparked a diplomatic incident that threatened war between the United States and the United Kingdom. The precise location of the interception is not stated in the retrieved passages; a legacy record suggests the Old Bahama Channel, but this remains unconfirmed.
Sources
- Trent Affair Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-22
- Charles Wilkes Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-11
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.