The ship is not owned by the country, but by the shipping company. If a neutral ship was caught trying to make money smuggling goods into a blockaded country they would be subject to prize regulations anyway. A u-boat catching a neutral ship in enemy waters might stop it and check papers, then turn it back, but once stopping ships became impossible they might just sink them anyway. At that point a ship from a neutral country would be safer in the convoy.
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“Never do anything you can't take back.”
—Rocky Russo
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