The Emergence of Privateering

The Emergence of Privateering

Author: John Davidson Ford

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

Published: 2023-04-03

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9004541411

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What exactly was privateering? How did it differ from other forms of maritime raiding? These questions are answered in a study of the emergence of privateering as a new legal category in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.


The Emergence of Privateering

The Emergence of Privateering

Author: John Ford

Publisher: Brill Nijhoff

Published: 2023-05-25

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789004541405

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What exactly was privateering? How did it differ from other forms of maritime raiding? These questions are answered in a study of the emergence of privateering as a new legal category in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.


Privateering

Privateering

Author: Faye Kert

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2015-09-30

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1421417472

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The first book to tell the tale of the War of 1812 from the privateers’ perspective. Winner of the John Lyman Book Award of the North American Society for Oceanic History During the War of 1812, most clashes on the high seas involved privately owned merchant ships, not official naval vessels. Licensed by their home governments and considered key weapons of maritime warfare, these ships were authorized to attack and seize enemy traders. Once the prizes were legally condemned by a prize court, the privateers could sell off ships and cargo and pocket the proceeds. Because only a handful of ship-to-ship engagements occurred between the Royal Navy and the United States Navy, it was really the privateers who fought—and won—the war at sea. In Privateering, Faye M. Kert introduces readers to U.S. and Atlantic Canadian privateers who sailed those skirmishing ships, describing both the rare captains who made money and the more common ones who lost it. Some privateers survived numerous engagements and returned to their pre-war lives; others perished under violent circumstances. Kert demonstrates how the romantic image of pirates and privateers came to obscure the dangerous and bloody reality of private armed warfare. Building on two decades of research, Privateering places the story of private armed warfare within the overall context of the War of 1812. Kert highlights the economic, strategic, social, and political impact of privateering on both sides and explains why its toll on normal shipping helped convince the British that the war had grown too costly. Fascinating, unfamiliar, and full of surprises, this book will appeal to historians and general readers alike.


A History of American Privateers

A History of American Privateers

Author: Edgar Stanton Maclay

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-02-03

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 1108026281

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An 1899 account of the role of privateers in winning the American War of Independence and building the American Navy.


Privateers and Privateering

Privateers and Privateering

Author: Edward Phillips Statham

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-08-10

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13:

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Privateers and Privateering by Edward Phillips Statham is about sailors on pirate ships aiming to attack enemy shipping. This book talks about lesser-heard-of Scottish, French, and American pirates. Excerpt: "The privateersman, scouring the seas in his swift, rakish craft, plundering the merchant vessels of the enemy, and occasionally engaging in a desperate encounter with an opponent of his own class..."


The Legal History of Pirates & Privateers

The Legal History of Pirates & Privateers

Author: Thomas J Shaw Esq

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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The story of pirates and privateers was actually a tale of legalities and illegalities, separated by a thin statutory line marking those on one side as criminals and the other side as heroes worthy of reward. The illegal and universally condemned acts of maritime piracy and the legal and nationally praised acts of maritime privateering are the basis for this book. Nearly two hundred legal issues are identified among more than a hundred trials of pirates and prize ships seized by privateers, across several centuries of American and British history. These range from the intention to turn pirate, pirates as witnesses, common versus civil law piracy, trying foreign pirates, and special proofs for convicting women, physician, child, indigent, and Black pirates to the use of letters of marque and reprisals versus privateering commissions, condemning or acquitting neutral ships and cargo, the impact of fraudulent ship's papers, the law of nations versus municipal law, and flying false colors during an attack. For each legal issued identified, the related statutes, crew agreements, ship's papers, and court documents are discussed, starting from the 13th century in Britain, continuing up until the cessation of privateering and the winding down of piracy by the time of the American Civil War. Many figures from the legal history in both countries, judges and lawyers, present their legal reasoning while both better-known and lesser-known pirates and privateers appear as defendants or libelants. From this easy-to-read source with highlighting of key legal points, the reader will gain an understanding of the legal developments behind American law, and its legal ancestor British law, on piracy and privateering. Telling the stories of famous, infamous, and anonymous rogues, rebels, and maritime capitalists from a legal perspective, this book has something for all types of readers: lawyers, judges, law students, fans of history, those interested in pirates and the age of sail, and the general reader.


American Privateers of the Revolutionary War

American Privateers of the Revolutionary War

Author: Angus Konstam

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-02-20

Total Pages: 49

ISBN-13: 1472836332

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During the American War of Independence (1775–83), Congress issued almost 800 letters of marque, as a way of combating Britain's overwhelming naval and mercantile superiority. At first, it was only fishermen and the skippers of small merchant ships who turned to privateering, with mixed results. Eventually though, American shipyards began to turn out specially-converted ships, while later still, the first purpose-built privateers entered the fray. These American privateers seized more than 600 British merchant ships over the course of the war, capturing thousands of British seamen. Indeed, Jeremiah O'Brien's privateer Unity fought the first sea engagement of the Revolutionary War in the Battle of Machias of 1775, managing to capture a British armed schooner with just 40 men, their guns, axes and pitchforks, and the words 'Surrender to America'. By the end of the war, some of the largest American privateers could venture as far as the British Isles, and were more powerful than most contemporary warships in the fledgling US Navy. A small number of Loyalist privateers also put to sea during the war, and preyed on the shipping of their rebel countrymen. Packed with fascinating insights into the age of privateers, this book traces the development of these remarkable ships, and explains how they made such a significant contribution to the American Revolutionary War.


History of the American Privateers

History of the American Privateers

Author: George Coggeshall

Publisher:

Published: 2009-09

Total Pages: 452

ISBN-13: 9781846777813

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Coggeshall, the author of this work, is both well known and highly regarded by those interested in chronicles of the great days of sail during the early nineteenth century. Coggeshall's two volume work of his voyages as a crewman and officer of American schooners and his experiences with the navy of the United States are vital reading .... This book concerns the American privateers-- a subject the author knew well by close personal experience. Coggeshall commanded two letters-of-marque during the War of 1812-- David Porter and Leo. In this history he has attempted to embrace the fortunes of every ship, crew and commander and to describe the many battles at sea and the taking of 'prizes' that typified this engrossing conflict between the emergent American nation and the British--Publisher's description.


Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period

Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period

Author: Various

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2019-11-21

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13:

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In the early days of the United States, maritime history played a pivotal role in the country's development, and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America recognized this importance by releasing a volume of documents highlighting privateering and piracy. While it might seem odd to pair these two subjects together, privateers often found themselves crossing into piracy due to the difficulty of remaining legal while operating on the high seas. This collection of documents, selected for their ability to illuminate the nature of these two trades, brings to light previously unpublished papers that chronicle American privateers and pirates from the early colonial period up to 1763.