YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/-nWJPAutKIg?si=XMNPmdjt_WMpirpx
This presentation explores a crucial but under-examined chapter in maritime history, revealing how contraband control shaped decision-making during the opening months of the Second World War. Through a series of previously unpublished incidents, Synnøve Marie Kvam Strømsvåg will unpack how contentious prize cases involving seizure of neutral ships influenced diplomatic relations between belligerent and neutral nations, impacting on military strategy and the course of events during this period.
Drawing on original research supported by the Norwegian Shipowners’ Mutual War Risks Insurance Association and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence WWII Cultural Heritage Fund, amongst others, this session will show how individual prize cases became precedent-setting and exposed legal grey zones which continue to endure in today’s hybrid threat environments at sea. Some such legal grey zones from 1939 have since been clarified in law, whilst others remain unclear. Some incidents created legal precedence – others impacted on the course of events but left few traces in law.
Attendees will gain new insight into the intersection of regulation and international relations that remains relevant for current war risk, maritime legislation, civilian shipping and naval strategy. And it all started with the forgotten story of two shipwrecks on Orkney.
X marks the spot 