Privateering,
The right given to private individuals to roam the ocean and seize and plunder the vessels of an enemy in time of war. When the act of the British Parliament prohibiting all trade with the colonies and confiscating their ships and effects as if they were the ships and effects of open enemies was received by Congress, the first instinct was to retaliate.
On March 16, 1776, a committee of the whole considered the propriety of authorizing the inhabitants of the colonies to fit out privateers.
Franklin expressed a wish that such an act should be preceded by a declaration of war, as of one independent nation against another.
Two days afterwards, after an able debate, privateers were authorized to cruise against ships and their cargoes belonging to any inhabitant, not of
Ireland and the
West Indies, but of
Great Britain.
All
New England and New York,
Virginia, and
North Carolina voted for it.
Maryland and
Pennsylvania voted against it. On the following day
Wythe,
Jay, and
Wilson were appointed to prepare a preamble to the resolutions, and when on the 22d
Lee presented their report (being in the minority), he moved an amendment, charging the
King himself with their grievances, inasmuch as he had “rejected their petitions with scorn and contempt.”
This was new and bold ground, and was objected to as severing the
King from the colonies.
Never before had they disclaimed allegiance to their monarch, and Congress hesitated; but on the following day (the 23d) the amendment was accepted.
This was nearly three months before
Lee offered his resolution for independence.
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Type of privateer used in the Civil War. |
Early in the
Revolutionary War privateering was entered upon with much zeal and vigor by the
Americans, especially by the New Englanders, and the scarcity produced by the interruption of regular commerce was partially supplied by successful cruisers.
It was kept up during the whole war. Shares in vessels following it were held by many of the leaders in
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Clipper-built privateer schooner. |
the Revolutionary struggle.
Robert Morris made large profits by the business, and
Washington was part owner of one or more privateers.
The homeward-bound British vessels from the
West Indies, deeply laden, and passing a long distance along the
American coast, offered rich and tempting prizes.
In the first year of this naval warfare nearly 350 British vessels were captured, worth, with their cargoes, $5,000,000.
The records of the American privateers during the
War of 1812-15 show the wonderful boldness and skill of American seamen, most of them untaught in the art of naval warfare and the general character of privateering service.
After the first six months of the war most of the naval conflicts on the ocean were carried on, on the par-t of the
Americans, by private armed vessels, which “took, burned, and destroyed” about 1,600 British merchantmen of all classes in the space of three years and nine months, while the number of American merchantvessels destroyed during the same period by British privateers did not vary much from 500.
The American armed vessels which caused such disasters to British commerce
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numbered about 250.
Of these forty-six were letters-of-marque, and the remainder were privateers.
This was 115 less than were enrolled while there were difficulties with
France in 1789 and 1799.
The number of private armed vessels then was 365.
Of --he whole number in 1812-15, 184 were sent out from the four ports of
Baltimore,
New York,
Boston, and
Salem.
The aggregate number sent out from
Portsmouth (N. H.),
Philadelphia, and
Charleston, was thirty-five.
The remainder went out from other ports.
The “clippers” were the fastest sailors and most successful of the privateers.
These were mostly built at
Baltimore, or for parties in that city, and were known as “
Baltimore clippers.”
They were schooners with raking masts.
They usually carried from six to ten guns, with a single long one, which was called “Long Tom,” mounted on a swivel in the centre.
They were usually manned with fifty persons besides officers, all armed with muskets, cutlasses, and boarding pikes, and commissioned to “burn, sink, and destroy the property of the enemy, either on the high seas or in his ports.”
A complete history of American privateering would fill several volumes; an outline of it is contained in
Coggeshall's
History of American privateers.
The most famous and desperate combat recorded in the history of American privateering is that of the
General Armstrong,
Capt. S. C. Reid, in September, 1814.
See
General Armstrong, the.
