ORIGINAL: DCWhitworth
If you look at history the British Royal Navy pretty much acted as a law unto itself during this era. If there was an enemy there neutrality would not be respected.
It's not a question of neutrality. In the mediterranean ports especially it wasn't necessary for the British to get very close to the port to blockade it. An effective blockade could be run from 50 or so nautical miles off shore, way out of the range of shore batteries and any real knowledge of any ship's presence. Similarly, the British maintained a single channel fleet with a number of "escort" sloops, cutters, and the like which placed an effective blockade on all of the French channel ports. The channel fleet stood off quite some distance from the port, well out into what would be considered the adjoining sea area. Any protests of violation of neutrality would be pretty much void at that distance.
You can see quite some distance from the top of the rig of a tall ship (been there, done that). The only thing you need to do is to be able to get into broadside position well before an enemy fleet leaves the port channel or roads, and given the way that sailing ships of the time were rigged, a spotter in the crow's nest (and indeed the weather) is going to give you many hours warning of any attempt by the blockaded ships to leave the port.
