GOVT3999 Lecture 4: wk 4 Privateering vs Piracy
23 Dec 2018
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Term privateering refers to the privately owned vessels licensed by the state to set out with the specific intention of seizing enemy property on the high seas. Private men of war ranged in size and ambition from the tiny cockleshetts of the channel islands to the ocean going squadrons. Also within the privateering compass lay the armed merchantmen, vessels primarily concerned with trade but equipped with commissions to take advantage of a chance meeting with a potential prize. Privateers were related to navies since their authority was valid only in wartime and against enemy property. Thus they carried the taint of piracy dispite their potential utility to the state in an age were destruction of enemy commerce was afforded a high strategic priority. General reprisals against an enemy nation in wartime: nations could justify acts of war as retaliatory measures. Letter of marque and letters of reprisals were used to describe the licenses granted to privateers from the mid-16 century.
