privateer
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.35|East Indiaman (left) battling , a privateer commanded by French corsair [[Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Ambroise Louis Garneray.]]
AI overview
A privateer was a privately-owned ship authorized by a government to attack and capture enemy vessels during wartime, combining private enterprise with military purposes. Privateers mattered because they allowed nations to expand their naval power and warfare capabilities without directly operating all the ships themselves, as shown by this example of a French-commissioned privateer engaging in combat during the Napoleonic era.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
23 sectionsContents
- Legal framework and relation to piracy
- Noted privateers
- Ships
- Overall history
- England/Britain
- Bermudians
- Providence Island colony
- Spain and its colonies
- France
- Malta
- United States
- British Colonial period
- American Revolutionary War
- War of 1812
- 1856 Declaration of Paris
- American Civil War
- Latin America
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- Primary sources
- External links
thumb|upright=1.35|East Indiaman (left) battling , a privateer commanded by French corsair [[Robert Surcouf in October 1800, as depicted in a painting by Ambroise Louis Garneray.]]
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes and taking crews prisoner for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission (i.e. the sovereign). Most colonial powers, as well as other countries, engaged in privateering.