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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.
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.
The post-Spanish Succession period (1715 to 1726), when English sailors and privateers left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession turned en masse to piracy in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the North American eastern seaboard, and the West African coast.
A privateer was a private person authorized by a country's government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping. Privateering was an accepted part of naval warfare from the 16th to the 19th centuries, authorised by all significant naval powers. Notable privateers included: Victual Brothers or Vitalians or Likedeelers 1360–1401
After the end of the War of Spanish Succession (1702–1713) and the Peace of Ultrecht legal privateers working for a legitimately recognized government simple turned to piracy. As many politicians feared, the privateering strategy of war backfired. [13]: 181 Corruption of local officials was also a problem for authorities.
The Republic of Pirates was the base and stronghold of a loose confederacy run by privateers-turned-pirates in Nassau on New Providence island in the Bahamas during the Golden Age of Piracy [1] for about twelve years from 1706 until 1718.
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The Confederate States privateer Savannah. First to leave Charleston Harbor, on 2 June 1861, was the privateer Savannah.Her second day at sea, she captured brig Joseph, and thereby became the first Charleston privateer to take a prize in the war.