PRIVATEERS
______Privateers have been called many things (legalized pirates, most notably) but I prefer to thing of them as the ultimate in privitization. Privateers were hired naval crews and ships.
______Privateering goes back to the 13th Century but really came into its own in the 16th and 17th Centuries, when European states began to establish overseas empires and extensive overseas commerce. Huge permanent navies were rare and privateers were a useful way of expanding naval power in times of war. Vessels used for privateering were fast vessels armed with privately-purchased cannon, usually converted commercial ships but sometimes designed and built specifically for privateering.
______Originally, the document that authorized privateering was known as a letter of reprisal but was superseded by the Letter of marque. A letter of marque from a government authorized a private vessel to capture ships of a SPECIFIC enemy country for the duration of hostilities and sometimes oulined stiff penalties for attacking ships of other nations.
______The main incentive for privateers was financial. A letter of marque gave the crew the legal right to plunder enemy ships and each member of the crew got a "cut" of the profits. The cargo would be seized and if the enemy ship was captured intact it would be brought back; everything would be sold and the profits divided among the crew. On the other hand, if a privateer vessel failed to capture any enemy booty then the crew got nothing.
______As a result privateers almost always went after lightly-armed commercial shipping and rarely attacked actual warships. This only made sense as there wasn't much money to be had in taking such vessels and (more importantly) such ships usually out-gunned privateers. Unless there was a "bond" or reward for the capture or destruction of a specific enemy warship they rarely had problems with privateers.
______While individual lightly-armed enemy ships striking independently against commercial shipping might not seem like much of a military threat, the consternation they could cause amongst shipowners and politicians could be great. As a result regular warships would have to be detached to patrol the sealanes and escort shipping, reducing the naval power available to bring to bear against military objectives. Such annoyances would often lead some regular naval officers refuse to recognize letters of marque and one of the occupational hazards of a privateer was to be hanged as a pirate.
______In fact, it was not unknown for privateers to attack ships of neutral nations; after all, many ships flew the flags of other countries in order to avoid capture. But when privateers began raiding ships of the nation that had written their letter of marque then there was no going back. They were now pirates and targets for the warships of any country that came across them. Captain Kidd was one such privateer-turned-pirate.
______Privateers were employed extensively during the conflicts between Spain and England, as well as during the U.S. Revolution. An ancestor of mine was captured a few days after setting sail as the captain of the privateer Harlequin in 1777 when it set sail looking for British vessels. Unfortunately, the first British vessel it came across was a frigate. Privateering was also practiced by the Confederates during the Civil War.
______Privateering was on the wane during the 19th Century, when large-scale long-term fighting between overseas empires was largely unknown. With the advent of Total War in the 20th century, in which all resources are available to the State, privateering has become almost unknown.
WHAT FIGHTER PLANE WAS CALLED THE "GOBLIN"?
