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A Captain Bannister, who in June 1684 had run away from Port Royal on a privateering venture with a ship of thirty guns, had been caught and brought back by the frigate "Ruby," but when put on trial for piracy was released by the grand jury on a technicality.
A dispute, however, between the merchants of Holland and England, towards the year 12l5, caused a privateering warfare, and a ten years' suspension of intercourse. A reconciliation afterwards led to the establishment of the English wool staple, at Dort. A subsequent quarrel deprived Holland of this great advantage.
He was owner of a number of armed privateering vessels, took several prizes, and also aided in fitting out several other vessels as privateers. The Nicholson family, of Scottish parentage, was famous in the naval annals of the United States for three generations, from the Revolution to the Civil War. In the war of 1812 he fired the first gun, June 23, 1812, at the British frigate "Belvidere."
"I could go on a King's ship" "And get bullied to death for nothing a day." "The free-trading my mother won't hear of." "Crais b'en!" "Why, I don't know ." "Never mind why. She has her reasons without doubt." "So there's nothing for it but the privateering." "B'en! Why couldn't you say so without boxing the compass, mon gars? Privateering is the biggest chance nowadays. Of course, the risks ."
The Austrian Government is therefore of opinion that its former assurance to the Washington Cabinet could not be held to apply to armed merchant vessels, since these, according to the legal standards prevailing, whereby hostilities are restricted to organised military forces, must be regarded as privateers (freebooters) which are liable to immediate destruction. History shows us that, according to the general law of nations, merchant vessels have never been justified in resisting the exercise by warships of the right of taking prizes. But even if a standard to this effect could be shown to exist, it would not mean that the vessels had the right to provide themselves with guns. It should also be borne in mind that the arming of merchant ships must necessarily alter the whole conduct of warfare at sea, and that such alteration cannot correspond to the views of those who seek to regulate maritime warfare according to the principles of humanity. As a matter of fact, since the practice of privateering was discontinued, until a few years back no Power has ever thought of arming merchant vessels. Throughout the whole proceedings of the second Peace Conference, which was occupied with all questions of the laws of warfare at sea, not a single word was ever said about the arming of merchant ships. Only on one occasion was a casual observation made with any bearing on this question, and it is characteristic that it should have been by a British naval officer of superior rank, who impartially declared: "Lorsqu'un navire de guerre se propose d'arrêter et de visiter un vaisseau marchand, le commandant, avant de mettre une embarcation
Although Etrusco-Carthaginian piracy was not wholly repressed Antium, for example, having apparently continued a haunt of privateering down to the beginning of the fifth century of Rome the powerful Syracuse formed a strong bulwark against the allied Tuscans and Phoenicians. But the victory remained, as is well known, both in the west and in the east with the Dorians.
"Thank you, Lieutenant Lonley; you are very kind; and if I ever go into the privateering service, I shall certainly go in with you," replied Christy. "An officer with your power of persuasion will be invaluable to me," replied Lonley, still holding the hand of the other. "If I were gifted in this respect as you are, Captain Gilder, do you know what I would do?"
Even now you may find during your summer wanderings some stumpy, weather-worn two-master running on for shelter overnight, which has plied up and down the coast for fifty or sixty years, now leaking like a basket and too frail for winter voyages. It was in a craft very much like this that your rude ancestors went privateering against the British.
Consequently, both to swell the volume of British commerce and protect it from privateering, the seizure of the French West Indian colonies "filching the sugar islands," as Sheridan called it was a very justifiable war measure, in spite of the scattering of forces involved. Hayti was lost to France as a result of the negro uprising under Toussaint l'Ouverture.
Their owners receive from the government a commission to go on the seas, and to capture any vessel of the enemy, whether it is owned by the government or by private citizens, or whether it is armed or not. And to encourage privateering, the government allows the owner and crew of a privateer to keep the property captured as their own.
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