USS San Jacinto stops the British mail packet Trent
November 8, 1861, Old Bahama Channel, at sea, Cuba.
- Date
- November 8, 1861
- Where
- Old Bahama Channel, at sea, Cuba
- What happened
- Captured
- Event
- 14 of 174
USS San Jacinto stopped the British mail packet RMS Trent in the Bahama Channel, the deepwater route between Cuba and the Grand Bahama Bank, and took off the Confederate envoys James Mason and John Slidell. Trent had left Havana the day before, bound for St. Thomas and England. The seizure threatened a war between the United States and Britain, and Lincoln's government ended the crisis by releasing the envoys.