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privateer |
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privateerPrivately owned vessel commissioned by a state at war to attack enemy ships, usually merchant vessels. All nations engaged in privateering from the earliest times until the 19th century. Crews were not paid by the government but were entitled to receive portions of the value of any cargo they seized. Limiting privateers to the activities laid down in their commissions was difficult, and the line between privateering and piracy was often blurred. In 1856, by the Declaration of Paris, Britain and other major European countries (except Spain) declared privateering illegal; the U.S. finally repudiated it at the end of the 19th century, and Spain agreed to the ban in 1908. See also buccaneer, Francis Drake, William Kidd, Jean Laffite. privateer 1. an armed, privately owned vessel commissioned for war service by a government 2. a commander or member of the crew of a privateer How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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And there, not unfrequently, sat the rough captain of a privateer, just returned from a successful cruise, in which he had captured half a dozen richly laden vessels belonging to King George's subjects. A French privateer captured the vessel on her passage home, the flaxseed was condemned and sold, my ancestors being transferred in a body to the ownership of a certain agriculturist in the neighborhood of Evreux, who dealt largely in such articles. Norris was at intervals urging something different; and in the most interesting moment of his passage to England, when the alarm of a French privateer was at the height, she burst through his recital with the proposal of soup. |
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