Cartel (ship)

However, if it engaged in commerce or warlike acts such as carrying official dispatches or messengers, it lost its character of inviolability and would then be subject to capture.

During the War of 1812 the British Admiralty wrote to the United States Government that Great Britain would not accept as valid cartel agreements made on the high seas.

Rather than turn Duke of Montrose over to the Agent for American Prisoners, the British government instructed Blewett to resume command of his ship and prepare her to sail again.

[4] The last known modern day use of the title "cartel ship" refers to the SS Canberra, a British P&O cruise liner that the UK used in 1982 in the Falklands War.

Known colloquially as "The Great White Whale", Canberra ferried 4,000 Argentinian prisoners of war from the islands to Puerto Madryn, Argentina, from East Falkland after the cessation of hostilities, and was appointed a cartel ship by the Red Cross representative Hugo Berchtold, then present in the islands.