Privateers And Privateering

Historians and armchair adventurers will enjoy this collection of true stories of privateering incidents and heroes, taken mostly from the eighteenth century. Privateers, originally known as "private men-of-war", have frequently been confused with pirates, but unlike pirates, privateers were licensed plunderers. Privateers were valuable auxiliaries to the Navy, although, in the absence of legitimate prey, privateers would sometimes adopt the tactics the pirates. "The privateersman, scouring the seas in his swift, rakish craft, plundering the merchant vessels of the enemy, and occasionally engaging in a desperate encounter with an opponent of his own class, or even with a well-equipped man-of-war, has always presented a romantic and fascinating personality." Discussions include: two early incidents, privateering in the South Seas with chapters devoted to William Damper, Woodes Rogers, George Shelvocke and John Clipperton; the Great Englishmen?Fortunatus Wright and George Walker; Frenchm