Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. [1] Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The ...
A captured American privateer captain, 20-year-old Gideon Olmsted, shipped aboard the British sloop Active in Jamaica as an ordinary hand in an effort to get home. Olmsted organized a mutiny and commandeered the sloop. But as Olmsted's mutineers sailed their prize to America, a Pennsylvania privateer took the Active. [14]
Triton was launched at Calcutta in 1815 and sold shortly thereafter to Spanish owners. She was sailing from Bengal to Cadiz when an American-built and outfitted privateer with a letter of marque from the patriotic forces in Buenos Aires captured her in January 1817 in a sanguinary single-ship action during the Argentine War of Independence.
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 ...
[2] [3] The size of her crew indicates that she was sailing as a privateer. Later, as a packet or merchant vessel, she had a crew of fewer than 10 men. As a privateer, the extra men above the number required to sail her where there to act as prize crews on any vessels she would capture. Captain William Tardiff acquired a letter of marque on 22 ...
Charming Sally was a privateer in service with the Continental Navy in 1779, during the American Revolutionary War.. Previously a merchant ship, Charming Sally entered Continental Navy service when her master, Alexander Holmes, master, received a letter of marque on 27 January 1779.
Tarleton and Samuel Gilbody received a letter of marque on 31 May 1793. [1] The size of the crew and the number of guns suggests that Tarletton would operate as a privateer. On 16 July Tarleton was in company with the privateer Eliza , of Liverpool, Canny, master, at 32°30′N 18°40′W / 32.500°N 18.667°W / 32.500; -18