Privateers Not Pirates - War of 1812 on the High Seas
During the War of 1812, America relied heavily on its privateer fleet to harass British shipping and the attacks began to have a telling supervene on British trade.
Privateers Not Pirates - War of 1812 on the High Seas
Privateers were a sort of government-sanctioned pirate fleet that operated under a Letter of Marque and Reprisal issued by the president or the Crown - the British also made less sufficient use of privateers. Their role was to wreak havoc with the enemy's commerce by capturing as many merchant vessels as possible. The privateer then took proprietary of the captured ship and cargo, which meant huge profits for the privateer crew.
In the 21st century, privateers have gone the way of cutlasses and black powder. Most nations abolished the institution in the notification of Paris in 1856. Along with Spain, Mexico and Venezuela, the United States did not sign the treaty but decided to keep its wartime options open. The U.S. Never again resorted to privateering, although the Confederate States of America made use of privateers in the 1860s.
By the end of the War of 1812, there were 500 registered American privateers. A much smaller whole of these ships did any real damage to the enemy's merchant shipping. American privateers cost the British hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in lost ships and cargo. Estimates are that as many as 1,700 prizes were taken, most within the last year and a half of war. That works out to about two ships lost per day, a whole devastating to British merchants.
Operating a privateer was a company enterprise. Many such ships began life as merchant vessels but were turned to privateering out of sheer financial necessity on the part of their owners. Groups of wealthy businessmen formed partnerships to outfit idle merchant ships as privateers. Guns and powder, cutlasses and grappling hooks were purchased, shop of food were laid in, and the salaries of crews were paid. There were huge risks in that the whole ship could be lost. A lucky ship could make its owners, captain and crew rich. Due to the British blockade on the United States, cargoes of coffee, rum, fruit and silk seized by privateers brought high prices.
Privateers operated under rather gentlemanly rules in that they were predicted to treat captured crews with respect. In turn, captive captains and crew members of privateers were carefully prisoners of war, not criminals. Captured pirates, on the other hand, usually came to a quick end moving a length of rope and a yardarm. A ship's crew captured by pirates could expect wholesale slaughter.
Privateers were not concerned in fighting naval battles with British ships of the line. Most privateers did not have the firepower to go toe to toe with Royal Navy vessels, which could throw far more iron - cannonballs - than any privateer trading broadsides with them. Their goal was to capture merchant ships and make money. They relied on speed to overtake merchant vessels rather than firepower.
Anyone who has read a Patrick O'Brian novel or seen the new Horatio Hornblower films knows the basic drill complex in capturing a merchant vessel. The privateer crew comes alongside the hapless merchantman, tosses grappling hooks into the rigging so the two ships are locked together, then swarms aboard. More than whatever else, a privateer relied on sheer numbers to overwhelm the merchant ship's crew. There would be a short, swift fight, a prize crew would be put aboard to sail the ship to a harbor where it could be sold for a handsome profit, and the privateer would sail off in search of its next victim.
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