Privateer
Corsair (from the Latin cursus, "career") was the name given to those who practiced privateering warfare, and the term could refer to both sailors as well as ships, whether belonging to the armed forces or private individuals, who acquired military status by virtue of the permission granted by a government in a letter of mark or patent of marque.
Parking is similar to piracy, but the difference is that privateering is legal for and by your government. Some governments considered privateers from other nations to be pirates.
Differences between pirates and privateers
The theoretical difference between a pirate and a corsair lies in the legality of their acts. Both groups dedicated themselves to looting ships, but the pirates did it breaking the laws for their own benefit, in peace or war, against any enemy, while the privateers did it only in times of war and under the permission of a government incorporated into their naval flag, which was granted to end maritime traffic and thus weaken the enemy nation. They are also said to have been mutually pitted against each other.
However, throughout history the limit has often become blurred due to the very nature of the issue, since governments at war gave authorizations, many times indiscriminately, allowing individuals to carry out acts of piracy under a framework of apparent legality.
Among the privateers who acted under the authorization of their country, the following stand out:
- Francis Drake (British Empire)
- Pieter van der Does (Dutch Empire)
- Amaro Pargo (Spanish Empire)
- Jeireddín Barbarroja (Ottoman Empire)
- Hippolyte Bouchard (United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata)
- Miguel Enríquez (Spanish Empire)
- Robert Surcouf (French Empire)
- Lars Gathenhielm (Swedish Empire)
- Ingela Gathenhielm (Swedish Empire)
Legal framework
A privateer is a person or private ship that engages in maritime warfare under a privateer's or war's patent. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of maritime commerce, until the turn of the century XIX all merchant ships traveled armed. A sovereign authority issues or delegates commissions, also known as a letter of marque, during times of war. The commission empowered the holder to carry out all forms of hostility allowed at sea by the customs of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as booty, and taking prize crews prisoner for trading. Captured ships were subject to expropriation and sale under the prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's patrons, the owners, the captains, and the crew. Typically, a percentage stake went to the commission issuer (ie, the sovereign).
The patent was proof that the privateer was not a pirate. Activity was usually limited to a particular ship and specific officers, during a specific period of time. The owners or the captain would be required to pay a performance bond. The commission also dictated the expected nationality of potential prize ships under the terms of the war. At sea, the privateer's captain was required to present the captain of a ship taken as a possible prize to the commission as proof of the legitimacy of his claim. If a prize's nationality was not an enemy of the sending sovereign, the privateer could not claim the ship as prize. To do so would be an act of piracy.
In British law, under England's Crimes at Sea Act 1536, piracy was considered treasonous, as was raiding a ship without a valid patent. In the late 17th century century, the prosecution of loyalist privateers by the usurped King James II of England for piracy began to change the legal framework of piracy from treason to crime against property. As a result, letters of marque became a matter of national discretion. By the passage of the Piracy Act of 1717, a privateer's loyalty to Great Britain overrode any loyalty to a sovereign providing the patent. This helped bring privateers under the legal jurisdiction of their home country in the event the privateer became a pirate. Other European countries followed suit. The move from treason to property also justified the criminalization of the traditional sea-raiding activities of people the Europeans wished to colonize.
The legal framework around authorized sea raids by privateers was considerably murkier outside of Europe. Lack of familiarity with local forms of authority created difficulties in determining who was rightfully sovereign on land and at sea. The Mediterranean privateers operated with a style of patriotic-religious authority that Europeans, and later Americans, found difficult to understand and accept. It didn't help that many European privateers happily accepted commissions from the lords of Algiers, Tangiers, and Tunis. The sultans of the Jolo Archipelago (now the present-day Philippines) had only tenuous authority over the local slave-catching communities of Iranun. The sultans created a carefully woven web of marital and political alliances in an attempt to control unauthorized incursions that would spark war against them. In Malay political systems, the legitimacy and strength of their sultan's management of trade determined the extent to which he exercised control over maritime raids by his coastal people.
Privateers were involved in piracy for a number of complex reasons. For the colonial authorities, successful privateers were skilled sailors who brought in much-needed income, especially at newly established colonial outposts. These abilities and benefits often caused local authorities to overlook a move from privateering to piracy when a war ended. The French governor of Petit-Goave gave the buccaneer Francois Grogniet privateering commissions in white, which Grogniet traded to Edward Davis for a spare ship so that the two could continue raiding Spanish cities under the guise of legitimacy. New York Governors Jacob Leisler and Benjamin Fletcher were removed from office in part because of their dealings with pirates such as Thomas Tew, who had been given commissions by Fletcher to sail against the French, but who ignored his patent to raid Mughal shipping. in the Red Sea.
Some privateers were prosecuted for piracy. William Kidd accepted a commission from King William III of England to hunt down pirates, but was later hanged for piracy. He failed to show the documents of the ships he had captured in time to prove his innocence.
Privateer commissions were easy to obtain during the war, but when the war ended and privateers were called up by sovereigns, many refused to give up the lucrative business and turned to piracy. Boston Reverend Cotton Mather lamented after the execution of pirate John Quelch:
Yes, since the style of corso degenerates so easily in piracy and the trade of corsous is usually carried out with such a unChristian temperament and is an entry for so many much debauchery and iniquity and confusion, I think I will make good men agree with me to wish that the corsore is no longer practiced unless more hopeful circumstances appear to encourage it.
A highly regulated warfare
The privateers made war according to the same laws as the state sailors, that is, those of the Navy of the sponsoring state, but for commercial and not military purposes. They signed a contract called a "hunting party" a few days before departure, all decisions about the destination, the object of the expedition and the catches being collective.
General rules during the expedition
- To have a letter of patent received from some state to pursue enemy ships; this authorization expires as soon as hostilities cease. In case of defeat, this letter is delivered to the victor, giving faith of the mission entrusted by the King, avoiding the immediate horca for piracy.
- If it is possible to approach the enemy ship by deceit while displaying a neutral or ally flag, there is the "obligation" of izar, from a certain distance, the real flag. Otherwise, it would be a betrayal.
- I respect the lives of prisoners.
- The personal effects of sailors or enemy passengers are not part of the spoil, they keep them: seals are placed in the chests, trunks, closets of prisoners (we can read in memories like those of Garneray or in the maritime archives, that prisoners use this money to bribe the jailers, improve the ordinary,etc. which proves that this obligation to respect the private property of prisoners was not only theoretical but truly respected.
Only the ship and its cargo (with the exception of the war period during which hostages are returned so that they can report the attack) can be captured, it is still necessary that the capture has been considered legitimate by the competent authorities to the return of the expedition. Enemy sailors are prisoners of war: they can be released at the end of hostilities, exchanged, or even released for ransom.
Administrative rules at the end of the expedition
- As soon as the ship was captured, the naval commissioned scribe boarded the captured ship. Its objective was to make an inventory of the cargo and put the actual seals so that nothing "disappears".
- The captain of the courtship presented his report to the Admiralty, whose examination by the administrative officers lasted several days.
- No one had the right to land before the officers of the administration had prepared the inspection report of the ship, verified that the seals placed by the ship’s scribe in the chests, trunks and socket cabinets were intact.
- Then they put their stamp on the hatch to prevent part of the boot from landing at night.
- Finally, they questioned the prisoners and drove them to the prisons of the city.
Only then could the crew leave the ship and await the verdict of the Court, necessary before the auction of the prize spoils.
Loot
In addition to the ship, the booty taken could be very varied: fruits and vegetables, wine and brandy, sugar, fish and meat (anchovies, herring, biscuits, beef, bacon), leather, precious woods, dyes (indigo), spices, coffee, chocolate or, much more rarely, bags of silver or gold dust.
The proceeds of the booty auction were divided among the people who collaborated in the capture of the enemy in order of priority:
- The state (king, republic, emperor) stayed between ten and twenty percent (it was he who provided the patent of corso).
- Payment of expenses (food, gunpowder, ammunition, as well as repairs during the trip).
- Widows and wounded (the widows took twice the share of their deceased husbands, and the injured had compensation, initially fixed according to the missing body part, in addition to their previously agreed part).
- The shipper (or the shipper group when the shipping costs were high) stayed with thirty percent of the rest.
- Finally, each man had his part according to his place in the crew (the group = half part, the captain = twenty-five parts, the surgeon = twenty-five parts etc.).
General history
In Europe, the practice of authorizing sea raids dates back at least to the 13th century, but the word "corsair" it was coined sometime in the mid-17th century century. A sailor who embarked on a warship was paid a salary and provided with sufficient provisions, but the sailor of a merchant or privateer ship received a part of the profits on the merchandise. Therefore, privateering offered working-class enterprises (merchant ships) with the possibility of substantial wealth (monetary prizes for captures). Opportunity mobilized local sailors as auxiliary troops in an era when state capacity limited a nation's ability to finance a professional navy through taxation alone.
Privateers were a large part of the total military force at sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the First Anglo-Dutch War, English privateers attacked the trade on which the United Provinces were entirely dependent and captured more than 1,000 Dutch merchant ships. During the subsequent war with Spain, Spanish and Flemish privateers in the service of the Spanish Crown, including the Dunkirk privateers, captured 1,500 English merchant ships, helping to restore Dutch international trade. British trade, whether coastal, Atlantic or Mediterranean, was also attacked by Dutch privateers and others in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars. Piet Pieterszoon Hein was a brilliantly successful Dutch privateer who captured the Spanish treasure fleet. Magnus Heinason was another privateer who served the Dutch against the Spanish. While his attacks and those of others brought home a great deal of money, they hardly made a dent in the flow of gold and silver from Mexico to Spain.
As the industrial revolution progressed, privateering became increasingly incompatible with the monopoly on violence of modern states. Modern warships could easily outperform merchant vessels, and strict controls on naval armaments led to fewer privately purchased naval weapons. The concept of privateering continued until the Paris Declaration of 1856, in which all the major European powers declared that "privateering is and continues to be abolished." The United States did not sign the declaration, but has not issued letters of mark or patents in any post-declaration disputes. In the 19th century, many nations passed laws prohibiting their citizens from accepting commissions as privateers for other nations. The last great power to flirt with privateering was Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 when Prussia announced the creation of a 'volunteer navy' for the British. of privately owned and crewed boats, but eligible for prize money. (Prussia argued that the Paris Declaration did not prohibit such force, because the ships were subject to naval discipline.)
Spanish Empire
The first attempt to regulate privateers dates back to 1288, when King Alfonso III of Aragon issued a letter ordering privateers to take patents and post a bond to ensure that they would not rob their fellow citizens, attack the enemy during a truce, or to ports that were considered neutral. At first, the Spanish empire hired corsairs to defend the Mediterranean coasts after the reconquest. Corsairs like Pero Niño, Íñigo de Artieta and Alonso de Contreras, became famous operating assaults on the Barbary coasts.
Caribbean Sea
Regarding the Caribbean when the Spanish Empire issued the decree preventing foreign countries from trading, selling or buying merchandise with its Caribbean colonies, the entire Caribbean region was caught up in a power struggle between the naval superpowers. The newly independent United States later became involved in this scenario, further complicating the conflict. As a consequence, Spain increased the issuance of privateering contracts. These contracts allowed income to the inhabitants of these colonies who were not related to the Spanish conquistadors. The best-known corsairs of the 18th century in the Spanish colonies were Miguel Enríquez of Puerto Rico and José Campuzano-Polanco of Santo Domingo.
Miguel Enríquez (1674–1743) was a Puerto Rican mulatto who gave up his job as a shoemaker to work as a privateer. Such was Enríquez's success that he became one of the richest men in the New World. His fleet comprised approximately 300 different ships during a career that spanned 35 years, becoming a military asset and reportedly surpassing the efficiency of the Windward Navy. Enríquez was knighted and received the title of Don from the hand of Felipe V of Spain, something unusual due to his ethnic and social origin. One of the most famous corsairs in Spain was Amaro Pargo.
José Campuzano Polanco (1698-1760) was arguably the most successful privateering privateer in Santo Domingo during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean in the first half of the century XVIII operating under a letter of marque. Known for his deep knowledge of the seas, he obtained a letter of marque to operate expeditions in Cartagena, Santa Marta, Maracaibo, Florida, Puerto Rico and the island of Santa Cruz, among other areas. In theory he wanted to stop smuggling but in reality this was a very important activity for the island of Santo Domingo, since it provided basic consumer products to the population and Campuzano knew it.
One of the last privateers under the tutelage of the Spanish crown is Mateo Mainery, who was caught carrying out acts as a privateer for the Viceroyalty near the mouth of the Guayas River in mid-1819. He was captured by the Chilean brig Galvarino under the command of Juan Tooker Spry who was part of the Chilean Navy that made up the squadron of the liberating expedition of Peru in charge of Lord Cochrane.
Balearic Islands
Parking in the Balearic Islands had its golden age during the XVII century, thanks to the wars between the monarchy Spanish and French, when navigation increased the privateering business became a very prosperous business. Between 1640 and 1652 the Majorcan privateers helped the royal cause before the Catalan revolt of the War of the Reapers. They did the same in the fight against the Messina rebellion. At this time the so-called "Squad of Mallorca" acted, made up of five ships and a crew of about seven hundred people, led by the privateer Pere Fleixes.
In the Port of Ibiza there is a monument that commemorates the heroic sailors of the Ibizan privateering, to the extent that they made a decisive contribution in the fight against North African piracy.
Corsairs in the Balearic Islands we find examples such as Pedro Fleixes, Jaume Canals, Antonio Barceló, Josep Cordilla, Juan Sastre, Antoni Pisà, Josep Pujol, Bartomeu Palau, Mateu Calvet Ros, Salvador Grisald Prats, Antoni Riquer y Arabí, Antoni Pavias Tur, Marc Riquer Palau.
Hispanic America
Insurgent governments recruited warships during the Spanish-American wars of independence to destroy Spanish commerce and capture Spanish merchant ships. Private armed ships came largely from the United States. Sailors from Britain, the United States, and France often manned these ships. An example of this is the French privateer Louis-Michel Aury who on June 3, 1818 received a letter of marque from the governments of Chile and the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata through the Chilean clergyman José Cortés de Madariaga.
On July 4, 1818, Aury captured the island of Providencia in the western Caribbean with the help of 400 men and 14 ships. He found the island populated by white, English-speaking Protestants and their slaves. Aury together with Agustín Codazzi used the islands as their base from which to seek the independence of Central America. They founded a settlement with a thriving economy based on looting captured Spanish ships, while unsuccessfully trying to rebuild good relations with Simón Bolívar. Under Aury's orders, Agustín Codazzi established Fort Libertad on Santa Catalina Island.
Aury under Argentine patent, raised the blue and white flag of Buenos Aires on the island of Providencia (today Colombia) and on the numerous ships of his navy for three years, confronting the Bourbon regime, before dying in 1821 at the age of 35 years in the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.
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Another flag of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (current flag of the Argentine Republic) had already flown on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean in Central America, between March and April 1819, from the frigate La Argentina, in the privateering naval expedition commanded by another privateer of French origin, Hipólito Bouchard, sergeant major of the marines, at the service of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.
The large-scale deployment of warships began between 1816 and 1821, mostly under the flag of Buenos Aires and the flag of Artigas. Between 1821 and 1829 privateers began to sail under the flags of Mexico and Colombia (the privateers who came from Cartagena, Colombia, were called "carthaginians"). The main motivation of these privateer insurgents was to make money but their political motivation was low. They captured merchant ships and slave ships to seize the loot, but refused to fight the Spanish Armada.
After the War of 1812, private armed ships arrived from North America, mostly from Baltimore. More than 100 ships left the United States, with more than 3,000 American sailors and captains to fight as privateers in the Spanish American wars of independence. Shipowners of other nationalities, such as French and British, also participated. These ships were fast, namely schooners or brigantines, typically armed with twelve to sixteen guns, consisting of twelve or twenty-four pounder calibres.
Cádiz was the main port attacked, but there were other ports on the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands that were also threatened. The second most important port was Havana, in Cuba where Spanish trade with the Americas suffered considerable damage. The most important factor for the reduction of Spanish trade was not the attacks by privateers but the loss of ports and new territories won by the republican countries.
Many other privateers made a military career during the independence wars in Latin America, to later become officers incorporated into the armed forces of the new nations, privateers such as: Guillermo Brown, Juan Illingworth Hunt, Renato Beluche, Giovanni Bianchi, Luis Brion, José de Villamil and Juan Bautista Azopardo.
England-Great Britain
In England, and later the United Kingdom, the ubiquity of warfare and the island nation's reliance on maritime trade allowed the use of privateers to great effect. England also suffered greatly from privateers from other nations. During the 15th century, the country lacked a coordinated institutional structure and finances. Increasingly, trading communities like Bristol began to resort to self-help, arming and outfitting ships at their own expense to protect trade. The licensing of these privately owned merchant ships by the Crown allowed them to rightfully capture ships that were considered to be pirates. This constituted a "revolution in naval strategy" and helped fill the need for protection that the Crown could not provide.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603), he encouraged the development of this supplementary navy. Over the course of his reign, Spain increased prosperity through its explorations in the New World and the discovery of gold contributed to the deterioration of Anglo-Spanish relations. Elizabeth's authorization to allow sea raiders (known as Sea Dogs) such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh allowed her to officially distance herself from their raiding activities while enjoying the gold obtained from these raids by third parties. English ships were sailing through the Caribbean and off the coast of Spain, trying to intercept Spanish treasure fleets.
Elizabeth I was succeeded by the first British monarchs of the House of Stuart, James I and Charles I, who did not allow privateers. Desperate to finance the costly War of the Spanish Succession, Queen Anne of Great Britain reinitiated privateering and even removed the need for a percentage to the sovereign as an incentive. English sovereigns continued to license British privateers throughout the 17th century, although there were a number of unilateral and bilateral declarations that limited the corsairs between 1785 and 1823. This helped to establish the corsairs' personality as heroic patriots. British privateers last appeared en masse in the Napoleonic Wars.
England and Scotland practiced privateering both separately and together after they united to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. It was a way to win for themselves some of the wealth that the Spanish and Portuguese were taking from the New World. This was a way of asserting naval power before a British Royal Navy emerged.
Sir Andrew Barton, Lord Admiral of Scotland, followed the example of his father, who had been granted letters of marque by James III of Scotland to take advantage of English and Portuguese shipping in 1485; the letters in due time from him were resent to his son. Barton died after an encounter with the English in 1511.
Sir Francis Drake, who had close contact with the sovereign, was responsible for some damage to Spanish shipping, as well as attacks on Spanish settlements in the Americas during the 19th century XVI. He participated in the successful English defense against the Spanish Armada in 1588, although he was also partly responsible for the failure of the English Armada against Spain in 1589.
Sir George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland was a successful privateer against Spanish shipping in the Caribbean. He is also famous for his brief capture in 1598 of Fort San Felipe del Morro, the citadel that protects San Juan, Puerto Rico. He arrived on the island of Puerto Rico on June 15, 1598, but by November of that year, Clifford and his men had fled the island due to fierce civil resistance. He gained enough prestige from his naval exploits to be named Queen Elizabeth I's official champion. Clifford became extremely wealthy from his buccaneers, but lost most of his money gambling on horse races.
Captain Christopher Newport led more attacks on Spanish ships and settlements than any other English privateer. As a young man, Newport sailed with Sir Francis Drake in the attack on the Spanish fleet at Cádiz, and participated in England's defeat against the Spanish Armada. During the war with Spain, Newport seized Spanish and Portuguese treasure fortunes in fierce naval battles in the West Indies as a privateer for Queen Elizabeth I. He lost an arm while capturing a Spanish ship during an expedition in 1590, but Despite this, he continued as a privateer, successfully blockading western Cuba the following year. In 1592, Newport captured the Portuguese carrack Madre de Deus (Mother of God), valued at £500,000.
Sir Henry Morgan was a successful privateer. Operating from Jamaica, he waged a war against Spanish interests in the region, often using cunning tactics. His operation was prone to cruelty against those he captured, including torture for information about loot and, in one particular case, the use of priests as human shields. Despite reproaches for some of his excesses, he was generally patronized by Sir Thomas Modyford, Governor of Jamaica. He collected an enormous amount of booty, as well as landing his privateers ashore and attacking land fortifications, including sacking Panama City with only 1,400 crew members.
Other notable British privateers include Fortunatus Wright, Edward Collier, Sir John Hawkins, his son Sir Richard Hawkins, Michael Geare and Sir Christopher Myngs. Notable British colonial privateers in Nova Scotia include Alexander Godfrey of the brig Rover and Joseph Barss of the schooner Liverpool Packet, the latter schooner capturing over 50 American ships during the War of 1812.
Bermuda Islands
The English colony of Bermuda (or the Somers Islands), accidentally colonized in 1609 by the British Empire, was used as a base for English privateers from the moment it officially became part of the Virginia Company territory in 1612, notably by ships belonging to the Earl of Warwick, for whom Warwick Parish of Bermuda is named (the Warwick name has long been associated with privateering trading raids, as evidenced by the Newport Ship, believed to have been taken from the Spanish by Warwick the Kingmaker in the 15th century). Many Bermudans were employed as crew aboard privateers throughout the century, although the colony mainly engaged in farming of cash crops until it switched from its failing agricultural economy to a maritime economy after the dissolution of the Somers Isles Company in 1684 (a split from the Virginia Company which had supervised the colony since 1615). With a total land area of 54 square kilometers (21 square miles) and with no natural resources other than Bermuda cedar, the colonists threw themselves fully into maritime trade, developing the speedy Bermuda sloop, which was well suited to both trade and pirate raids. Bermuda merchant ships resorted to privateering at every opportunity during the 18th century, taking advantage of shipping from Spain, France, and other nations during a series of wars, including the Nine Years' War of 1688 to 1697 (King William's War); Queen Anne's War from 1702 to 1713; the War of the Asiento from 1739 to 1748; the War of the Austrian Succession from 1740 to 1748 (King George's War); the Seven Years' War of 1754 to 1763 (known in the United States as the French and Indian War), this conflict was devastating to the colony's merchant fleet. Fifteen privateers operated out of Bermuda during the war, but losses outweighed gains from captures; the American War of Independence from 1775 to 1783; and the Anglo-Spanish War from 1796 to 1802. By the middle of the 18th century, Bermuda was sending twice as much to the sea as privateers than any of the continental colonies. They usually left Bermuda with very large crews; this advantage in manpower was vital in overpowering the crews of the larger ships, which often lacked sufficient crews to put up a strong defence. The additional crewmen were also useful as crews to drive the captured ships.
The Bahamas, which had been depopulated of its indigenous inhabitants by the Spanish, had been colonized by England, beginning with the Eleutheran Island adventurers, dissident Puritans driven from Bermuda during the English Civil War. Spanish and French attacks destroyed New Providence in 1703, creating a stronghold for pirates, and it became a thorn in the side of British trade in the area. In 1718, Britain appointed Woodes Rogers Governor of the Bahamas, sending him to lead a force to retake the settlement. Before his arrival, however, the pirates had been forced to surrender by a force of Bermudan privateers who had been issued privateer's patents by the Governor of Bermuda.
Bermuda had de facto control of the Turks, with its lucrative salt industry, since the late 17th century until the beginning of the 19th century. The Bahamas made perpetual attempts to claim the Turks for themselves. On several occasions, this involved the seizure of the ships of salt merchants in Bermuda. A virtual state of war was said to have existed between the ships of Bermuda and the Bahamas for much of the 18th century. When the Bahamians seized the Bermuda sloop, the Seaflower, in 1701, Bermuda Governor Captain Benjamin Bennett's response was to issue privateer's patents for Bermuda ships. In 1706, Spanish and French forces drove the Bermudians out, but three years later they were driven out by the Bermudan privateer Captain Lewis Middleton. His ship, the Rose, attacked a Spanish privateer and a French privateer who were holding an English ship captive. Defeating the two enemy ships, the Rose eliminated the thirty-man garrison left behind by the Spanish and French.
Despite strong sentiments in support of the rebels, especially in the early stages, the Bermuda privateers became equally aggressive against American shipping during the American Revolutionary War. The privateering's importance to Bermuda's economy had been increased not only by the loss of most of Bermuda's mainland trade, but also by the Palliser Act which prohibited Bermuda vessels from fishing the large shoals of fish offshore. Newfoundland on the American coast, present-day Canada. Bermuda's trade with the rebellious American colonies continued throughout the war. Some historians credit the large number of Bermuda sloops (estimated at over a thousand) built in Bermuda for privateers and illegally sold to the Americans as allowing the rebellious colonies to gain their independence. Additionally, the Americans relied on salt from the Turks, so in a special operation one hundred barrels of gunpowder were stolen from a Bermuda powder magazine and supplied to the rebels as orchestrated by Colonel Henry Tucker and Benjamin Franklin, as requested by George Washington, in exchange for which the US Congress authorized the sale of supplies to Bermuda, which was dependent on US products. The realities of this interdependence did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm with which the Bermuda privateers turned on their former compatriots.
An American naval captain, ordered to pull his ship out of Boston Harbor to take out a couple of Bermuda privateers that had been picking up lost ships for the British Royal Navy, returned frustrated and said: "the Bermudans sailed their ships two feet for each of ours". About 10,000 Bermudans emigrated in the years before American independence, mainly to the American colonies. Many Bermudans held prominent positions in US seaports, from where they continued their maritime trades (Bermudian merchants controlled much of the trade through ports such as Charleston, South Carolina, plus Bermudan shipbuilders influenced the development of American ships, such as the Chesapeake Bay schooner), used their knowledge of the Bermuda Islands, as well as their ships, for the cause of the rebels for American independence. At the Battle of Wreck Hill in 1777, brothers Charles and Francis Morgan, members of a large Bermuda enclave that had held sway in and around Charleston, commanded two sloops (the Fair American and the Experiment respectively), carried out the only attack on Bermuda during the war. The objective was a fort guarding a little-used pass through the reef line that surrounded it. After the soldiers manning the fort were forced to abandon it, they fired their weapons and fled before reinforcements arrived. When the Americans captured the Bermuda privateer ship Regulator , they discovered that virtually all of her crew were black slaves. Boston authorities offered these men their freedom, but all 70 chose to be treated as prisoners of war. They were sent as such to New York on the sloop Duxbury, but the ship was seized and brought back to Bermuda. One hundred and thirty ships taken as prizes were brought to Bermuda between April 4, 1782, and April 4, 1783, including three ships entered by the Royal Navy and the rest by privateers.
The War of 1812 saw a reappearance of the Bermuda privateer, which had disappeared after the 1790s. The decline of the Bermuda privateer was due in part to the construction of the naval base on Bermuda, which it reduced the British Admiralty's reliance on privateers in the western Atlantic, and in part to the success of American legal suits and damage claims brought against British privateers, much of which were directed directly at the Bermudians. During the course of the War of 1812, privateers from Bermuda captured 298 ships, about 19% of the 1,593 ships captured by the British navy and privateering ships between the Great Lakes and the West Indies.
Among the best-known Bermudian privateers (natives and immigrants) were Hezekiah Frith, Bridger Goodrich, Henry Jennings, Thomas Hewetson, and Thomas Tew.
Providence Island
The island was originally uninhabited. The first landings may have been between 1498 and 1502 by Dutch, English, Spanish and later Jamaican corsairs. Bermudians were also involved with privateers from the English colony of Providencia Island, off the coast of Nicaragua. This colony was initially established largely across the Bermuda Islands, when some eighty Bermudians moved to Providencia in 1631. Although the colony was intended to be used to grow cash crops, its location in the heart of Spanish-controlled territory he ensured that it quickly became a base for privateers.
Bermuda-based privateer Daniel Elfrith, while on a privateering expedition with Captain Sussex Camock of the barque Somer Ilands (an interpretation of "Somers Isles ", the alternative name for the Bermuda Islands) in 1625, discovered two islands off the coast of Nicaragua, 80 kilometers (50 miles) apart Camock was left with 30 of his men to explore one of the islands, San Andrés, while Elfrith took the ship "Warwicke" back to Bermuda bringing news from Providence Island. Governor Bell of Bermuda wrote on Elfrith's behalf to Sir Nathaniel Rich, a businessman and cousin of the Earl of Warwick (the namesake of Warwick Parish), who submitted a proposal to colonize the island noting its strategic location &# 34;in the heart of the Indies and in the mouth of the Spanish". Elfrith was appointed admiral of the colony's military forces in 1631 and remained the general military commander for more than seven years. During this time, Elfrith served as a guide for other privateers and sea captains arriving in the Caribbean. Elfrith invited the well-known privateer Diego el Mulato to the island. Samuel Axe, one of the military leaders, also accepted letters of marque from the Dutch.
The Spanish did not know about the Isla Providencia colony until 1635 when they captured some Englishmen in Portobelo, on the Isthmus of Panama. Francisco de Murga, Governor and Captain General of Cartagena de Indias, sent Captain Gregorio de Castellar y Mantilla and Engineer Juan de Somovilla Texada to destroy the colony on the island. The Spanish were repelled and forced to retreat in haste and disorder. After the attack, King Charles I of England issued letters of marque to the Providence Island Company on December 21, 1635 authorizing raids against the Spanish in retaliation for a raid that had destroyed the English colony at Tortuga in early 1635, Tortuga had came under the protection of the Providence Island Company. In 1635, a Spanish fleet invaded Tortuga. 195 colonists were hanged, and 39 prisoners and 30 slaves were captured. The company, in turn, could issue letters of marque to subcontracted privateers using the island as a base, for a handy fee. This soon became a major source of profit. Thus, the company reached an agreement with the merchant Maurice Thompson under which Thompson could use the island as a base in exchange for 20% of the loot.
In March 1636, the Company sent Captain Robert Hunt on the Blessing to take over as governor of what was now considered a privateering base. The depredations continued, leading to increasing tension between England and Spain, who were still technically at peace.
On July 11, 1640, the Spanish ambassador in London complained again, saying that
He understands that recently a certain Captain James Reskinner brought to the Isle of Wight a ship richly loaded with silver, gold, diamonds, pearls, jewels and many other precious items taken by him by virtue of a commission of that Count [of Warwick] of the subjects of His Catholic Majesty... for the infinite grievances and dishonour of His Catholic Majesty, to find himself thus wounded and violated, and his supreme subjects stolen
Nathaniel Butler, former Governor of Bermuda, was the last full Governor of Providence Island, succeeding Robert Hunt in 1638. Butler returned to England in 1640, satisfied that the fortifications were adequate, and delegated the governorship in Captain Andrew Carter.
In 1640, Don Melchor de Aguilera, Governor and Captain General of Cartagena, resolved to put an end to the intolerable plague of pirates on the island. Taking advantage of the fact that infantry from Castile and Portugal were passing through his port, he dispatched six hundred armed Spaniards from the fleet and from the prison, and two hundred black and mulatto militiamen under the command of Don Antonio Maldonado y Tejada, his sergeant major, in six small frigates and one galleon. Troops landed on the island and fierce fighting ensued. The Spanish were forced to withdraw when a gale blew up and threatened to run their ships aground. Carter had the Spanish prisoners executed. When the Puritan leaders protested against this brutality, Carter sent four of them home in chains.
The Spanish acted decisively to avenge their defeat. General Francisco Díaz Pimienta received orders from King Philip IV of Spain to set sail from Cartagena de Indias to Providencia with seven large ships, four pinnaces, 1,400 soldiers and 600 sailors, arriving at their destination on May 19, 1641. Initially, Pimienta he planned to attack the poorly defended area on the eastern side of the island, and the English rushed there to improvise the defences. With the winds against her, Pimienta changed her plans and headed for the main port of New Westminster and launched her attack on 24 May. He held back the large ships from him to avoid damage and used the pinnaces to attack the forts. Spanish troops quickly took control, and once the forts saw the Spanish flag fly over the governor's house, negotiations for surrender began.
On May 25, 1641 Pimienta formally took possession and celebrated mass in the church. The Spanish took sixty guns and captured the 350 colonists who still remained on the island; the rest of the settlers had escaped to the Mosquito Coast, on the mainland. The prisoners were taken to Cartagena, the women and children were given a return ticket to England. The Spanish found gold, indigo, cochineal and six hundred black slaves on the island, for a total value of 500,000 ducats, as part of the accumulated booty from the raids on Spanish ships. Instead of destroying the defenses, as instructed, Pimienta left a small garrison of 150 men to defend the island from occupation by the Dutch. Later that year, Captain John Humphrey, who had been chosen to succeed Captain Butler as Governor of the island, arrived with a large group of dissatisfied New England settlers. He found the Spanish occupying the islands and set sail again. Pimienta's decision to occupy the island was approved in 1643 and he was knighted in the Order of Santiago.
For the war of independence whose events took place during the first two decades of the XIX century, they had the Caribbean Sea as one of the main scenarios that attracted numerous traditional enemies of Spain ready to support the independence causes of the former Hispanic colonies. While the government of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, expelled from Santa Fe after 1811, moved to Panama, the islands that until then had remained loyal to the Spanish Crown continued their commercial relations and authority with the provisional colonial headquarters, which, however, lost quickly the ability to control the incendiary advances of the emancipation of Spanish America. For this reason, the English corsairs returned to the island of Providencia, this time allied with the independence causes from 1816 and invaded and looted San Andrés and Providencia.
Between 1818 and 1821 another familiar character would appear in the history of Providencia and the entire archipelago, the French privateer Luis Aury (1788-1821), who put himself at the service of Simón Bolívar's troops, although his relations with this was not the best. Aury, who had participated in different fights against the Spanish Empire in Florida, Mexico, Hispaniola, Venezuela and Colombia, dominated the archipelago and turned the island of Providencia into a military defense base against the Spanish reconquest troops. With Aury in charge of him, the islands had great commercial dynamism at the cost of attacking Spanish vessels.
United States
Colonial Period
During King George's War from 1744 to 1748 approximately 36,000 Americans served aboard privateering ships. During the Nine Years' War from 1688 to 1697, the French adopted a policy of strongly encouraging privateering, including the famous Jean Bart, to attack English and Dutch shipping. England lost approximately 4,000 merchant ships on its American routes during the war. In the next conflict, the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1715, privateering attacks continued, and Britain lost approximately 3,250 merchant ships. Later, in the War of the Austrian Succession, the Royal Navy was able to concentrate more on defending British-flagged ships, and Britain lost only 3,238 merchant ships. While French losses were proportionately heavy, the smaller but better protected Spanish trade suffered the least and it was Spanish privateers who enjoyed much of the looting of British trade, particularly in the West Indies.
American War of Independence
During the American Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress and some state governments (on their own initiative) issued privateer's patents, authorizing what they called "legal piracy," to merchant captains in an effort to for seizing British Navy vessels and privateers loyal to the British crown. This was done due to the relatively small number of US warships commissioned and the pressing need for prisoner exchanges. Some 55,000 American sailors served aboard privateering ships between 1775 and 1783. They quickly sold their booty, dividing their profits with the financier (individuals or companies) and the state (colony) that supported them. The Long Island Sound became a "wasp nest" of privateering activity during the American Revolution, as most shipping to and from New York passed through New London, Connecticut, making it a primary privateering port for the thirteen American colonies, leading to the British Navy blockaded it in 1778 to 1779. Major privateering financiers during this era included Thomas & Nathaniel Shaw from New London and John McCurdy from Lyme. In the months leading up to the British raid on New London and Groton, the ship Hannah was taken by a New London privateer in what is considered the largest haul taken by any American privateer during the war. The retribution was likely part of New York Governor Clinton's motivation for Arnold's raid, as many of his most prized items had been taken on the Hannah.
American privateers are believed to have seized up to 300 British ships during the war. The British ship Jack was captured and converted into an American privateer ship, only to be recaptured by the British in the naval battle off Halifax, Nova Scotia. American privateers not only fought sea battles, but also raided numerous communities in British colonies, such as the raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1782.
The United States Constitution authorized the United States Congress to grant privateer's patents. Between the end of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, less than 30 years later, Britain, France, Naples, the Barbary states, Spain, and the Netherlands seized approximately 2,500 American ships. Ransom payments and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of the annual revenue of the United States government in 1800 and would lead the United States to fight the Barbary states in the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War.
Anglo-American War of 1812
During the War of 1812 both the British and American governments used privateers again, and the system established was very similar to that last used. The United States Congress stated:
It is hereby declared that there is war between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its units, and the United States of America and its Territories; and that the President of the United States is hereby authorized to use the entire United States naval and land force to carry out the same, and to grant United States private armed vessels branding and retaliation commissions, in such manner as he deems appropriate, and under the stamp of the United States,
United States President James Madison issued 500 patents authorizing privateers. Captain Thomas Boyle was one of these famous and successful privateers. He commanded the Baltimore schooner Comet and later in the 'clipper war'; at the Chasseur in Baltimore. He captured more than 50 British merchant ships during the war. One source estimated total damage to the Royal Navy from the activities of the Chasseur between 1813 and 1815 at $1.5 million. In all, Baltimore's privateering fleet of 122 ships sank or seized 500 British ships with an estimated value of $16 million, representing about a third of the total value of all prizes taken over the course of the entire war.
On April 8, 1814, the British attacked Essex, Connecticut and burned the ships in the harbor, due to several privateering ships being built there. This was the largest financial loss of the entire War of 1812 suffered by the Americans. However, James De Wolf's private fleet, which sailed under the flag of the American government in 1812, was probably a key factor ultimately in the naval campaign of the war. De Wolf's ship, the Yankee, was arguably the most financially successful ship of the war. The privateers proved much more successful than their US Navy counterparts, claiming three-quarters of the 1,600 British merchant ships captured during the war (although a third of these were recaptured before they made landfall). One of the most successful of these ships was the Prince de Neufchatel, which once captured nine British prizes in quick succession in the English Channel.
Jean Lafitte and his privateers assisted US General Andrew Jackson in defeating the British at the Battle of New Orleans to receive a full pardon for his past crimes. Jackson formally petitioned for clemency for Lafitte and the men who had served under him, and they were all granted a full pardon by the US government on February 6, 1815.
However, many of the ships captured by the Americans were recaptured by the Royal Navy. British convoy systems perfected during the Napoleonic Wars reduced ship losses. The effective blockade of US and mainland ports prevented the captured ships from being offered for sale. This eventually led to orders forbidding American privateers from attempting to bring captured ships into port, so the captured ships had to be burned. More than 200 private ships owned by American privateers were captured by the Royal Navy, many of which turned on their former owners and were used by British blockade forces. However, during the War of 1812, privateers "ravaged the United States coastlines, capturing and sinking up to 2,500 British ships and causing approximately $40 million worth of damage to the British economy".
Civil War
The United States was not one of the initial signatories to the 1856 Paris Declaration that prohibited privateering, and the Confederate Constitution authorized the use of privateers. However, the US offered to adopt the terms of the Declaration during the Civil War, when the Confederates sent several privateers to sea before putting their main effort on the most effective commissioned raiders.
Privatery took various forms, including the running of blockades, while in general, it occurred in the interests of both the north and the south. Letters of marque were often issued to private shipping companies and other private ship owners, authorizing them to hire ships deemed hostile to the issuing government. Ships' crews received cargo and other prizes for boarding any captured ships as an incentive to seek out ships attempting to supply the Confederacy or aid the Union, as the case may be.
During the Civil War, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued letters of marque to anyone who used his ship to attack Union shipping or bring much-needed supplies through the Union blockade to southern ports.
Most of the supplies brought to the Confederacy were transported aboard private vessels considered privateers. When it became known that the Confederacy was willing to pay almost any price for military supplies, various interested parties designed and built purpose-built light sea steamers.
Neither the United States nor Spain authorized privateers in their war of 1898.
News
Under the US Constitution, Congress retains the right to "declare war, grant letters of marque and retaliation, and make rules regarding seizures on land and sea.& #3. 4;
The Bush administration after the attacks of September 11, 2001, wanted to strengthen the constitutional right of seizure at sea by wanting to pass a law, the "Act of Mark and Retaliation of September 11, 2001", which authorizes the Department of State to grant letters of marque without waiting for congressional approval to individuals or companies that may be entrusted with offensive naval military missions; but this text was not adopted. Other attempts to grant the President of the United States the right to grant letters of marque in 2007 and 2009 have been debated in Congress but were unsuccessful.
French Empire
Titles of privateers in France (French: corsaire) were awarded to private fleets authorized to raid the shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French Crown. The seized ships and cargo were sold at auction and the privateer captain was entitled to a share of the proceeds. Although not official personnel of the French Navy, privateers were considered legitimate combatants in France (and its allied nations), provided the ship's commanding officer was in possession of a valid letter of marque (French Lettre de Marque or Lettre de Course ), officers and crew behaved in accordance with contemporary admiralty law. Acting on behalf of the French Crown, if captured by the enemy, they could claim treatment as prisoners of war, rather than being considered pirates. Because privateers gained a reputation for bullying, the word "corsair" it is also used generically as a more romantic or extravagant way to refer even to pirates. French privateers attacking Spanish ships marked the beginning of filibustering in the West Indies.
The activities of the "corsaires" began in the Middle Ages with the main objective of compensating for economic problems in periods of war; the naval owners did not accept that the war was an obstacle to their trade. Jean de Châtillon, who was a bishop, in 1144 granted the city of Saint-Malo the status of asylum rights which incited all kinds of thieves and rogues to move there. His motto was & # 34; Neither Breton nor French, but from Saint-Malo I am! & # 34; . Saint-Malo, however, progressed and in 1308 the city became a free municipality to encourage the commercial activities of artisans, merchants and shipowners. This didn't really work and later in 1395 the city became a free port. This situation continued until 1688.
Between the early 1500s and 1713, until after the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht that ended French privateering raids in the Caribbean la "guerre de course", as the French called it, exacted an enormous price in the efforts of the Spanish treasure fleet to transport the gold and silver of the Viceroyalty of Peru to Santo Domingo and Havana to be taken to Spain. It was a matter of life and death, and immense wealth was at stake. Jean Ango, father and son, rose to be among the wealthiest and most influential men in France, apart from those listed below, Giovanni da Verrazzano (namesake of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge) and Jean Fleury who were among the leading French privateers from this time on the orders of King Francis I of France. Antonio de Beatis's 1517 travelogue described the ship of the French privateer Fra Bernardino, also known as the "Great Corsair" (operating against Turkish ships) in Marseilles: "Your galleon is solid wood, new and extremely well equipped, especially at artillery point, carrying twelve cannons, twelve falconets and one hundred arquebuses".
In a note based on an examination of the magazine "Lloyd's List" from 1793 to 1800, by an anonymous author, he showed that the losses of British ships from captures exceeded that compared to those resulting from the dangers of the sea.
Among the most famous French corsairs we find:
François Aregnaudeau (1774–1813), was a Breton who commanded several privateer ships, most famously the Blonde and Duc de Dantzig, in which he captured numerous prizes. He and Duc de Dantzig disappeared without trace at the end of 1812. Their disappearance gave rise to a gruesome and unsubstantiated legend of a ghost ship.
Jean-François de La Roque de Roberval (1500–1560) was a Protestant French nobleman and adventurer who, through his lifelong friendship with King Francis I, became the first lieutenant general of New France. As a privateer, he attacked towns and ships throughout the Spanish territory, from Cuba to Colombia. When they appointed him as the first lieutenant general of New France it did not work out as expected, he tried to pay off his debts through raids with a letter of marque. The Spanish Caribbean was his main objective, since at that time France and Spain were at war. Known to the Spanish by the pseudonym Roberto Baal, in 1543 he sacked Rancherías and Santa Marta, followed by an attack on Cartagena de Indias in 1544. In 1546, ships under his command attacked Baracoa and Havana. The following year, he retired from piracy. He died a Huguenot martyr.
René Duguay-Trouin was born in Saint-Malo in 1673, the son of a wealthy shipowner, took over a fleet of 64 ships, and was honored by the French crown in 1709 for capturing more than 300 merchant ships and 20 warships. He had a brilliant career as a privateer and within the navy, eventually becoming "Lieutenant General of the Kings Naval Armies," that is, admiral (French: Lieutenant-Général des armées navales du roi), and Commander of the Order of Saint Louis. He died peacefully in 1736.
Robert Surcouf (1773-1828) was the last and best-known privateer of Saint-Malo. Born there in 1773, his father was a naval shipowner and his mother the daughter of a captain. A boy among ships at 13 and a privateer captain at 22, for several years he attacked ships, including those of the French East India Company (French: Compagnie Française des Indes). During the French Revolution, the convention government disapproved of the letters of marque issued to him, so Surcouf operated at great personal risk as a pirate against British ships to India. Surcouf was so successful that he became a popular celebrity in France. After a brief early retirement, Surcouf returned to operating against British trade to India. Surcouf died in Saint-Malo in 1827, a statue of him is on public display there, and his house is now a small museum.
In France, the last privateer was Étienne Pellot (1765-1856).
Netherlands
From 1569 Dutch privateers, known to history as "Watergeuzen" or "Beggars of the Sea" they sailed all the seas, capturing merchant ships everywhere, but mainly they went to the Cape of Good Hope to attack Spanish ships on their way to the East Indies. One of the most famous among them was Cornelius Jol, who captured, hijacked, and plundered Spanish and Portuguese ships in large numbers.
In 1569 William of Orange, who had openly positioned himself at the head of his country's revolt, issued letters of marque to a series of ships manned by outlaws of all nationalities. Eighteen ships were equipped by Louis of Nassau in the French Huguenot port of La Rochelle, which they continued to use as a base. By the end of 1569, 84 Watergeuzen ships were in action.
Sea Beggars were powerful military units that facilitated the capture of coastal cities. These ferocious corsairs under the command of a succession of daring and reckless leaders, the best known of whom is William de la Marck, Lord of Lumey, were called "Sea Beggars" in English, "Gueux de mer" in French, or "Watergeuzen" in Dutch. At first they were content simply to plunder both by sea and by land, taking their booty to English ports where they could repair and replenish their stores.
However, in 1572, Queen Elizabeth I of England abruptly refused to admit the Watergeuzen to her ports. No longer having shelter, the Watergeuzen, under the command of Willem Bloys van Treslong and Lenaert Jansz de Graeff, desperately attacked Brielle, which they took by surprise in the absence of the Spanish garrison on 1 April of 1572. Encouraged by this success, they sailed for Vlissingen, which was also easily taken. The capture of these two towns caused several nearby towns to go into rebellion, starting a chain reaction that resulted in most of the present-day Netherlands joining in a general revolt and is considered the true beginning of Dutch independence.
In 1573, the Sea Beggars defeated a Spanish squadron under the command of Admiral Bossu off the port of Hoorn in the Battle of the Zuiderzee. Mixing with the native population, they quickly sparked rebellions against the Duke of Alba in one town after another and spread resistance southward.
During the revolt of the Netherlands against Habsburg authority, the Dutch fleet initially consisted of so-called koningsschepen ships, ships of the Flanders navy, but these were soon supplemented by shipowners private individuals who obtained a letter of marque from the High Council of Admiralty in Brussels. In exchange for such permission, 10% of the loot had to be paid as tax and 35% donated to the poor. So much damage was inflicted on shipping and commerce in the Union of Utrecht in 1587 by privateers that soon the States General of the Netherlands decided to treat these privateers as pirates and to imprison the members of the privateering crews. without due process.
In 1600, the Dutch sent an army to conquer the city of Dunkirk and stop privateering once and for all, known as The Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600 between the Spanish army and the Dutch is a milestone in the history of the Netherlands. The Republic expedition under Maurice of Orange took place during the latter's campaign against the troublesome Dunkirk corsairs.
Between 1627 and 1635, the Dunkirk privateers captured 1,606 Dutch ships and sank 423. Beginning in 1672, except for taking up open rebellion, they had to sail under French letters of marque. During the year 1672 the first year of the Franco-Dutch War, the Dunkirk privateer Jan Baert received a letter of marque from the French King Louis XIV. He managed to capture 81 Dutch merchant ships. In 1678 he joined the French army, where he engaged in similar activities.
England finally achieved the disarmament of the port of Dunkirk in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht.
Island of Malta
Intra-society privateering (Italian: corso) was an important aspect of Malta's economy when the island was ruled by the Order of Saint John, although the practice had long begun before. Privateers sailed privately owned ships on behalf of the Grand Master of the Order and were authorized to attack Muslim ships, usually merchant ships of the Ottoman Empire. Privateers included Knights of the Order, Maltese natives, and foreigners. When they captured a ship, they sold the goods and ransomed or enslaved the crew and passengers, with the Order keeping a percentage of the loot's value. Privateering work remained common on the island of Malta until the end of the century. XVIII.
Russian Empire
Russia enlisted the services of privateers back in the 16th century under Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Having captured Narva in 1558 during the Livonian War, the Russian tsar made it the main trade gate of Russia. Narva's trade grew rapidly, the number of ships entering the port reached 170 per year. Having lost revenue from the transit of Russian goods, Sweden and Poland launched extensive piracy activity in the Baltic Sea against ships bound for Narva. To counter them, Ivan the Terrible in March 1570 issued a letter of marque to the Dane Carsten Rode. The statute determined the procedure for dividing the loot, assigned a salary to the team. Having bought and equipped a ship with real money, Rode acted quite effectively, by September he had assembled a squadron of 6 ships and inflicted significant damage on Swedish and Polish merchants. Rode replenished the crews of the ships with Danes and Archangel Pomors, archers and artillerymen of the Pushkar order. Sweden and Poland sent special squads to search for and capture Rode, but were unsuccessful.
However, in September 1570 negotiations began between Denmark and Sweden to end the war. As a result, Rode was not needed. In addition, the squadron's activities significantly worsened trade activity in the Baltic Sea, reducing the revenue of the Danish treasury from charging fees for the passage of ships through the sine. In October 1570, in Copenhagen, under the pretext of raiding Danish ships, Rode was arrested, the teams were dispersed, and the ships and property were taken to the treasury.
Russia again resorted to the services of privateers during its first naval war, the Great Northern War under Peter I of Russia. In "Materials for the history of the Russian Navy" (Vol. II, No. 1334), the Senate Decree of 1716 on the issuance of patents to Lieutenant Ladyzhensky and Lieutenant Laurens Berlogen for capturing Swedish ships was printed, the order of award distribution is also indicated, and it is determined an unusually significant percentage, 62%, in favor of the treasury. The decree establishes that the gunsmiths must take only those neutral ships in which there will be military contraband; such ships were ordered to privateers "to bring into our marinas and, according to the court, declare good prizes".
At the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, Admiral Senyavin, with the permission of the government, issued letters of marque to the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands; in 1806 there were new rules on the distribution. These rules, completed in 1819, had in view, mainly, the solution of questions about the remuneration of privateers and owners unfairly harmed.
Barber Corsairs
The Barbary pirates of North Africa, as well as the Ottomans, were sometimes called "Turkish corsairs". According to historian Adrian Tinniswood, the most notorious privateers were European renegades who had learned their trade as privateers and who moved to the Barbary coast during peacetime to ply their trade. These had converted to Islam and thus brought up-to-date naval knowledge to the piracy business allowing privateers to conduct long-distance slave-capturing raids as far afield as Iceland and Newfoundland. The infamous privateer Henry Mainwaring (1587-1653), who was initially a lawyer and pirate hunter, later returned home to obtain a royal pardon. Mainwaring later wrote a book on the practice of piracy in the Mediterranean, aptly titled Discourse of Pirates. In the book, Mainwaring outlined potential methods to hunt down and eliminate piracy.
During the Franco-Turkish alliance of the 16th century between the king, Francis I of France, and the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Barbary corsairs did not attack the French ships and were even welcomed as allies in the port of Tolon, unlike pirates who were subject to death even from the Ottoman point of view.
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The most famous corsairs in North Africa were the Barbarossa brothers, Aruj (1474-1518) and Hayreddin (1475-1546). They were Barbary corsairs in the service of the Ottoman Empire; they were called Barbarossas which means "red beard" in Italian for the red beard of Aruj, the eldest. Aruj captured the island of Djerba for the Ottoman Empire in 1502 or 1503. He often raided Spanish territories on the North African coast; during a failed attempt in 1512, he lost his left arm to a cannonball. The elder Barbarossa also razed Algiers in 1516 and captured the city with the help of the Ottoman Empire. He executed the rulers of Algiers and everyone he suspected would oppose him, including the local rulers. He was finally captured and killed by the Spanish in 1518 and had his head put on display throughout Barbary.
Aruj, settled mainly on land, was not the best known of the Barbarossa. His younger brother Hızır (later named Hayreddin or Kheir ed-Din) was a more traditional privateer. He was a competent engineer and spoke at least six languages. He dyed the hair on his head and beard with henna to make it red like Aruj's. After capturing many crucial coastal areas, Hayreddin was appointed chief admiral of the Ottoman Sultan's fleet. Under his command, the Ottoman Empire was able to gain and maintain control of the Mediterranean for more than thirty years. Barbarians Hızır Hayreddin Pasha died in 1546 of a fever, possibly from the plague.
Other privateers such as the Englishman, John or Jack Ward, who was once called "without a doubt the greatest scoundrel to ever set sail from England" by the English ambassador in Venice he is also regarded as a Barbary corsair, first in service to Queen Elizabeth I of England in the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585, with the ships taken as booty he traveled to Tunis and converted to Islam. He possibly died of the plague. Barbary corsairs were also Kemal Reis, Gedik Ahmed Pasha, Sinan Reis, Piri Reis, Turgut Reis, Sinan Pasha, Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis, Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis, Salih Reis, Seydi Ali Reis, Piyale Pasha, Rais Hamidou, Uluç Ali Reis, Ali Bitchin, Simon de Danser (Simon Reis), Ivan-Dirkie de Veenboer (Sulayman Reis), Murat Reis the Elder, Jan Janszoon (Murat Reis the Younger).
Vitalienbrüder Corsairs
It was the name given to a group of sailors who influenced trade in the North and Baltic seas in the 14th century. These were German or burgher nobles who had more or less loose contact with each other. Between 1389 and 1394, they sought to secure Stockholm's food supply during the siege by Danish troops as blockade runners and then went to sea. as corsairs commissioned by kingdoms and Hanseatic cities.
From 1390 Mecklenburg employed a double tactic of warfare: on the one hand direct attacks and on the other hand a privateering war against Danish shipping, which led to a rapid resurgence of piracy in the Baltic Sea. In 1392 the situation in the Baltic Sea came to a head. The Vitali brothers endangered all trade in the Baltic Sea. The merchants once again organized themselves into convoys. Even in 1394 merchant shipping in the Baltic Sea came to an almost complete halt, which meant high profit losses, especially for the city of Wendish.
Led by the captain of the privateer ship Hanne, the Vitalienbrüder privateers attacked Bergen, Norway, on Maundy Thursday in 1393. The Vitalienbrüder privateers Klaus Störtebecker, Maister Wigbold, and Godeke Michels had a joint fleet of 900 men. Despite the initial fierce resistance of the Norwegians, the city was completely looted.
In 1394, the Vitalienbrüder corsairs seized Visby on Gotland which became their base and place of refuge. They also operated from the Turku archipelago. Knut Bosson, who was the head of Turku Castle between 1395 and 1398, was in league with the Mecklenburgers, so he supported the privateering activities of the Vitalienbrüder and allowed them to operate in the area.
In 1398, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Konrad von Jungingen, arrived on Gotland with 84 ships and landed with some four thousand men-at-arms. The Vitalienbrüder fled, and Visby immediately surrendered. By the 15th century, the activities of the Vitalienbrüder had stopped due to a lack of supporters. The turning point can be considered the year 1398, when they were expelled from Gotland. After this, only Klaus Störtebecker, Maister Wigbold and Godeke Michels, the leaders of the group, continued their operations in the North Sea from the Frisian Islands with 1,500 men. The leaders were captured and executed within a couple of years, thus the existence of the Vitalienbrüder privateers came to an end.
Treaty of Paris of 1856
The strengthening of the modern, authoritarian and centralizing state made the practice of privateering obsolete. The new characteristics of modern states meant that the attack on enemy commerce was losing its proportions, thus ending the concept of the corsair. The new steamboats, which required great costs to produce and maintain, put an end to private maritime warfare.
Privateuring was finally abolished in 1856 by the Treaty of Paris that ended the Crimean War. This treaty was signed by almost all the great powers of the time, that is, 52 states, with the notable exception of Spain and the United States. They wanted to obtain complete exemption from taking into the sea for private property but, their amendment not having been accepted by all the powers, they withdrew their formal adherence. During the Spanish–American War, both belligerents agreed to abide by the treaty, and in 1899 the United States Congress enacted legislation making it illegal to seize ships or sell any captured.
The last time privateers were used was during the 1879-1880 war between Peru and Bolivia on the one hand, and Chile on the other. However, in the same years there were attempts to restore the figure of the corsair. In 1870, Prussia, in view of the Franco-Prussian war, established a "naval militia", which France protested to England, seeing in it the restoration of privateering; but like the "naval militia" was subordinated to the command of the naval forces, the judges of the English crown recognized it as legitimate, comparing it with the volunteers of the land army.
Invention of the military salute
As a historical curiosity, in the book "Principles of Military Defense" by the Vasconcellos brothers, it appears as a famous privateer who invented the "Military salute" in the way known today (with the right hand flat on the forehead and/or over the eyes, originally). One day, it was very sunny and the sailors, in a position of military firmness, were present at the ceremony of their boss Francis Drake, when the queen went to place the Knight's collar on him. His dress, which shone (with many gems and diamonds), dazzled the eyes of the sailors. In this way, everyone gave the military salute, disciplined and at the same time. Which was, shortly after, highly praised by the so-called "Virgin Queen". All the Allied military commanders present soon wanted to emulate Drake and his crew, considered highly disciplined.