Henry, the forty stowaways did not get on board the CSS SHENANDOAH until the night before her departure(most of them boarded at about 11 p.m. or later, according to the documentary evidence I have, as shown in the ALABAMA CLAIMS volumes, so this was not the cause of the problems with the Australian authorities). Additionally, I have also found the following entry in the journal of John T. Mason, another officer of the cruiser, which also further supports the evidence that commander Waddell had loaded guns even before the cruiser left her anchorage in Hobson's Bay:

"All this time we had heard nothing more from shore & did not know whether they would attempt to prevent us from going to sea or not, but the Capt. had all the guns loaded & seemed determined not to be trifled with any more. At night the harbour police kept a strict watch on us to prevent men from coming on board as it was well known that we were very short handed."

No matter what the reason, the cruiser was in a British port, which was a neutral port, and should have followed the neutrality law of that nation. It is obvious that none of the British authorities knew that the guns were loaded, even for years after the war, and perhaps until recent times, long after all the participants were long gone from the scene.
The original problems with the government authorities stemmed from the local police not being allowed to search the cruiser, a few days before she left, for someone who was known to have been taken aboard the cruiser, contravening the foreign enlistment act. This was the famous "Charley" who is mentioned in the local newspaper accounts, as well as in some of the journals.