Nazi ships near Curaçao are forced to anchor outside Willemstad’s drawbridged harbor, because the Dutch are afraid they might sabotage oil stored in the islands by Royal Dutch Co.

In November 1861, when the U. S. Civil War was just getting going. Captain Charles Wilkes of the Union Navy, commanding the screw sloop San Jacinto, fired a shot across the bows of the British Royal Mail packet Trent as she steamed along the Bahama Channel. The Trent hove to…