From the beginning of the American Revolution until the end of the War of 1812, America's real naval advantage lay in its privateers. It has been said that the battles of the American Revolution were fought on land, and independence was won at sea. For this we have the enormous success of American privateers to thank even more than the outrageous actions and valuable diplomatic service of the small Continental Navy. Even in the War of 1812, when the American Navy was far better organized, there were never more than twenty-five ships at sea at a time. By contrast, there were always several hundred privateers attacking British commerce worldwide, although in neither war could privateers have been sufficient for victory regardless of their numbers and success. Armed ships under national command are required to wage war. But without the privateers, the outcome of both wars would have been farless favorable to America. Privateering is older than navies themselves. Professional navies as we know them today did not emerge in Europe until the17th century. (Even in the great battles of the Spanish Armada of 1588 most of the ships in both Spanish and English fleets were privately owned.) Sovereigns had long depended on issuing written commissions to shipowners giving them authority (not command) to attack, sink and seize enemy vessels in time of war including private merchant ships and neutral ships trading contraband or running a blockade.

Such commissions came to be called "Letters of Marque and Reprisal," and by the17th century were well recognized in international law. The incentive for merchants to invest in and cargoes that they were able to seize as "prizes." By the 18th century there was a well-ordered legal system for the processing of such prizes in all the maritime nations of the world.

The judge (or in some cases the prize agent) of the local government under which the trial took place was entitled to a variable percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the prizes. If the captor was a government-owned ship, the prize money was normally split between the government and the crew. If the captor was a privateer all prize money belonged to the ship's owners and crew. It should be no surprise that it was far easier to obtain crews for privateers than for the Navy.

By the late 18th century two distinct kinds of privateering had emerged. Some nations issued privateers' commissions as well as Letters of Marque and Reprisal. The former were given to ships often outfitted and designed for the specific purpose of capturing enemy prizes. On the other hand, Letters of Marque (the name for ships sailing under Letters of Marque and Reprisal) were cargo vessels whose primary mission was commerce but were armed and on the lookout to take prizes if they presented themselves. The American colonies issued both commissions and Letters of Marque and Reprisal. By the end of the war the distinction had become almost meaningless, and Letters of Marque were issued for both purposes.


Sir John Keegan, Defense Editor, The Daily Telegraph, reviews "On Seas of Glory"

Click here to read excerpts from other books by John Lehman





A wag has described doing research on the Web as "like using a library assembled piecemeal by pack rats and vandalized nightly." That being said, the sites listed below have been quite useful and have links to numerous other Web sites, far more than I could list.


MARITIME HISTORY

http://www.ils.unc.edu/maritime/home.shtml

http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/marit.htm

http://www.hazegray.org

http://www.history.navy.mil


CIVIL WAR

http://www.cwc.lsu.edu

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_browse.html


SUBMARINES

http://www.submarinevets.com


DISCUSSION GROUP/BULLETIN BOARD DEVOTED
TO MARITIME ISSUES

http://www.marmus.ca/marmus/marhst.html