Privateers

Privateering refers to privately owned armed ships or privateers that were authorized by governments during wartime to attack enemy shipping and seize ships and cargo as prizes. Privateers operated under letters of marque and reprisal, which granted legal authority to capture enemy vessels and bring them before admiralty courts for prize condemnation and reward distribution to owners, investors, and crew.

Throughout the 16th to early 19th centuries, privateering was used by several maritime powers, notably England, France, the Netherlands, and Spain, as a way to augment naval power and disrupt enemy trade without maintaining large fleets. Privateers often attacked commerce rather than fighting navy ships, and prize money provided economic incentives. Notable privateers include Sir Francis Drake and other Elizabethan-era figures; during the American War of 1812, American privateers captured many British merchant vessels.

Legal distinction from piracy rested on government licensing; privateers operated under commissions that could be revoked. Prizes were adjudicated by prize courts, with condemned ships and cargo shared among sponsors and crew after legal costs.

Decline followed the 19th-century push for codified rules of warfare. The Declaration of Paris (1856) proscribed privateering among its signatories, and by the 20th century privateering had largely ceased, though some states never ratified the treaty. The United States did issue letters of marque during the War of 1812 and the Civil War era, but privateering is now illegal in most jurisdictions.

Today privateering is regarded as obsolete under modern international law, and naval warfare relies on official armed forces and private security contractors for related functions, rather than state-sanctioned private warships.