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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.

Hi, would put in my 5 cents at this discussion. I would like to support DCWhitworth historicly there were episodes, when a french ship was chassed to a neutral port (Spanish historicly) and then the GB fleet put a blockade on the harbour. So as you see in this case GB and FR were at war but Spain was neutral.

Been searching for Empires in Arms option rules online,and found these little gems.
[*]
[ol][*]BLOCKADE DIFFICULTIES (Optional):  All the problems involved in holding blockading fleets at sea were not worked out until the end of the period covered by this game and there is a chance the blockading fleets can be driven off station. [/ol]





[*]At the start of its Naval Step, a major power with one or more of its ports blockaded may select any one of these blockade boxes in which to "check the blockade".  To check the blockade, the blockade box is announced and all major powers having fleet(s) in that blockade box roll a die for each fleet while the blockaded power rolls one die.  Great Britain's rolls when blockading are always modified by "+1".
[*]If any blockading fleet roll matches or exceeds the blockaded power's roll, there is no change.  If the blockaded power's roll exceeds the highest blockading roll, all blockading fleets must be immediately moved into the adjacent sea area or areas (the controlling player's choice).  The blockaded naval power then performs its naval movement normally. [/ol]
[ol][*]INDECISIVE NAVAL ACTIONS (Options): Although some admirals, notably "Black Dick" Howe at the Glorious First of June, were not adverse to fighting unconventionally, prior to January 1798 (when Nelson rose to command the fleets) naval actions were ruled by stilted "Fighting Instructions" and tended to have indecisive results.  Therefore, prior to January 1798, for any naval combat except when using harbor defenses (which are handled normally), the losses on both sides are halved (fractions rounded up). [/ol]

Graham:

Curious, I don't think I've seen this one before??? Can you tell me where you found these?

Hi Marshall,
                   Here be the link for the information you requested,it's a very good source of info about Empires In Arms.
 
http://www.boardgaming.info/EIA-archive/

Thanks Graham!