Privateer

Privateer, a ship owned by a private individual, which, under government permission, expressed by a Letter of Marque (q.v.), makes war upon the shipping of a hostile power. To make war upon an enemy without this commission, or upon the shipping of a nation not specified in it, is piracy. Privateering was abolished by mutual agreement among European nations, except Spain, by the Declaration of Paris in 1856; but the United States of America refused to sign the treaty, for reasons which are given in the article Paris (q.v.). It is doubtful, however, how far that abolition would stand in a general war, for privateering is the natural resource of a nation whose regular navy is too weak to make head against the maritime power of the enemy, especially when the latter offers the temptation of a wealthy commerce. It was usual for the country on whose behalf the privateers carried on war to take security for their duty respecting the rights of neutrals and allies, and their observing generally the law of nations. While not considered Pirates (q.v.) by the law of nations, they were looked upon as little better during the great wars at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and as a rule received but scant mercy at the hands of the regular services. In the wars of 1793-1814 many English privateers were afloat. But in the same period no less than 10,871 English ships, with over £100,000,000, were taken by French 'corsairs;' the Breton privateer Surcouf took, in two months of 1807, prizes worth £291,250. At the American Revolution the new republic fully realised the advantage of its position in preying on the mercantile marine of Great Britain; and in the war of 1812 British commerce suffered severely at the hands of American privateers, of which it was computed that some 250 were afloat. During the American civil war the Confederate cruisers were at first regarded in the north as mere pirates; and the Alabama Claims originated in the charge against Britain of allowing the departure of privateers from British ports. In 1870 Prussia made a decree in favour of creating a 'volunteer navy.' See ENEMY, NEUTRALITY, ALABAMA, BUCCANEER, CORSAIR, PIRATE, PRIZE; Norman, The Corsairs of France (1887); Gomer Williams, The Liverpool Privateers (1897).