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A letter of marque and reprisal (French: lettre de marque; lettre de course) was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a foreign state at war with the issuer, licensing international military operations against a specified enemy as reprisal for a previous attack or injury.
The holders of letters of marque were also required to be the actual owners of the ships; this was to discourage speculation in the letters. [11] CSS Mananass {1904 drawing} An anomalous feature of the legislation governing Confederate privateering was that it allowed attacking enemy warships.
Although not French Navy personnel, corsairs were considered legitimate combatants in France (and allied nations), provided the commanding officer of the vessel was in possession of a valid letter of marque (lettre de marque or lettre de course, the latter giving corsairs their name), and the officers and crew conducted themselves according to ...
Piracy in Scotland dates back to the presence of Viking pirates in Scotland in 617. [1] The main difference between pirates and privateers is that privateers were given a permit by their sovereign country, which pardoned them from all legal actions taken against pirates. [2]
Until 1620, for example, to apply for a Letter of Marque in England a shipowner had to submit to the Admiralty Court an estimate of his actual losses.[footnote] Later the element of retaliation fell away, and a Letter of Marque and Reprisal became simply a general license to cruise in search of enemy vessels, which a country issued after ...
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Several cutters have served His Britannic Majesty's revenue service as HM Revenue Cutter Swallow in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In wartime each cutter operated under a letter of marque, which authorized the master to engage in offensive actions against the enemy, not just defensive.
Captain Musgrave Walker acquired a letter of marque on 22 August 1795. [2] He sailed from Liverpool on 19 September 1795. [3] A French privateer captured Accomplished Quaker and took her into Gorée before she could gather any slaves. [4] Accomplished Quaker did not appear on the lists of vessels cleared out of English ports bound for Africa. [5]