What is a privateer?

What is a privateer?

A ‘privateer’ was just a privately-owned vessel — sometimes built expressly for privateering, but more often converted from fishing or trading — which received a government license in wartime to go out and capture enemy merchant ships. This practice had begun during the Middle Ages, when countries did not have large navies, and evolved into a system that could help governments wage war at sea without having to pay for the ships or the sailors.

Privateering had been big business during the American Revolution and then again during the War of 1812. 43 different privateers sailed from Salem during the war: mostly schooners, but also full-rigged ships and tiny sloops and luggers. Over half of them were either captured by the British or wrecked. Privateering was risky, and that is why privateers were usually owned by groups of investors, in order to share the risk, rather than by individuals.

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