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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.
Her new owners restored her original name and applied for a letter of marque at the start of the Civil War. A week later, they amended their application to rename their ship the Jefferson Davis in honor of the Confederate president. Despite the name changes, Northern newspapers consistently referred to her as "the former slaver Echo." [17] [18]
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 ...
Captain Swinton had already acquired a new letter of marque on 20 June 1803, [3] i.e., in absentia while still returning from his second voyage. He sailed from Portsmouth on 8 May 1804, bound for St Helena and Bengal. Lady Burges reached st Helena on 6 August and arrived at Kedgeree on 25 November. Homeward bound, she was at Saugor on 4 ...
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]
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water ... A number of wars have been declared under the U.S. Constitution, although there is some controversy as to the exact number; the Constitution does not specify the form of such a declaration.
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 ...
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.