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80-415: West Indies Squadron can refer to one of the following: West Indies Squadron (United States) , a United States Navy formation North America and West Indies Station , a Royal Navy formation See also West India Squadron (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

160-521: A felucca off Cuba's Colorados islands. Peacock managed to capture the felucca; the pirate crew scuttled their three schooners and fled to shore. Grampus rescued the crew of the American schooner Shiboleth after it had been taken by pirates in June 1823. The brigands boarded the merchantman silently, killed the guards, and then cornered the remainder of the crew within the ship. The pirates robbed

240-626: A sovereign to a subject, authorizing him to make reprisals on the subjects of a hostile state for injuries alleged to have been done to him by the enemy's army". During the Middle Ages , armed private vessels enjoying their sovereign's tacit consent, if not always an explicit formal commission, regularly raided shipping of other states, as in the case of the English Sir Francis Drake 's attacks on Spanish shipping. Queen Elizabeth I (despite protestations of innocence) took

320-619: A "privateer status", but Congress never authorized a commission, nor did the President sign one. The issue of marque and reprisal was raised before Congress after the September 11 attacks and again by Congressman Ron Paul on July 21, 2007. The attacks were defined as acts of "air piracy" and the Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001 was introduced, which would have granted the president the authority to use letters of marque and reprisal against

400-631: A Seminole camp and in the ensuing action, the Seminoles ambushed the Navy expedition. Five men were killed and another 22 wounded. The sailors and marines then returned to their boats and paddled back to their ship. Other operations were undertaken by the squadron until it was disbanded and its ships became part of the Home Squadron. Letters of marque A letter of marque and reprisal ( French : lettre de marque; lettre de course )

480-494: A boat expedition that captured four schooners, though again most of the pirates escaped. On 2 November 1822, USRC  Louisiana , along with USS Peacock and the Royal Navy schooner HMS  Speedwell , captured five pirate vessels off Havana. On 8 November 1822, Lieutenant Allen of USS Alligator was killed in battle, while leading an attack against three enemy schooners that were holding five merchantmen hostage. In

560-510: A boat when it was fired upon from the shore. The Americans withdrew to their ship and on the next morning they landed sailors and marines, who attacked and destroyed a makeshift fort . The pirates evaded the American shore party, but the Americans dismantled the fort and removed its few heavy artillery pieces. USS Sea Gull , under the command of Ralph Voorhees, recaptured the merchant schooner Pacification from pirates on 30 March. Throughout

640-570: A brief 3½ minute battle. After the Americans boarded Palmyra , they found that pirates were from Puerto Rico and had a letter of marque . However, the letter was found to be fake, so the Americans detained the pirates and handed them over to the Spanish in Cuba. At this time the usual procedure for dealing with captured pirates was turning them over to Spain because the United States didn't have

720-555: A crew replenishing her water casks ashore. The three British vessels immediately gave chase. The frigate fled towards the Sunda Strait . The Indiamen were able to catch up with a number of the prizes, and, after a few cannon shots, were able to retake them. Had they not carried letters of marque, such behaviour might well have qualified as piracy. Similarly, on 10 November 1800, the East Indiaman Phoenix captured

800-539: A few warships remained on station, by October the majority were back in American ports. In October 1824, pirates raided Saint Thomas in the Danish Virgin Islands and returned to Fajardo with $ 5,000 worth of merchandise stolen from an American-owned business. The store's owner requested that Lieutenant Platt help him recover his goods. Platt landed men in Fajardo on 27 October 1824; in order to not alert

880-601: A matter of interpretation. The terms "letter of marque" and "privateer" were sometimes used to describe the ships which typically operated under the marque-and-reprisal licences. In this context, a letter of marque was a lumbering, square-rigged cargo carrier that might pick up a prize if the opportunity arose in its normal commerce. In contrast, the term privateer generally referred to a fighting vessel, fore-and-aft rigged , fast, and weatherly. Letters of marque allowed governments to fight their wars using mercenary private captains and sailors in place of their own navies as

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960-519: A measure to save time and money. Instead of building, funding, and maintaining a navy in times of peace, governments would wait until the start of a war to issue letters of marque to privateers, who financed their own ships in expectation of prize money. Marque derives from the Old English mearc , which is from the Germanic * mark- , which means boundary, or boundary marker. This is derived from

1040-423: A pirate base near Cape San Antonio and cleared the area of criminals. In September 1821, brigands captured three American merchant vessels off Matanzas, Cuba . The pirates tortured the crew of one vessel and set her on fire; survivors were able to escape to shore in a boat. The pirates killed three men on the second American vessel and everyone on the third vessel; the pirates also burned both vessels. This incident

1120-401: A share of the prizes. Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius 's 1604 seminal work on international law, De Iure Praedae ( Of The Law of Prize and Booty ), was an advocate's brief defending Dutch raids on Spanish and Portuguese shipping. King Henry III of England first issued what later became known as privateering commissions in 1243. These early licences were granted to specific individuals to seize

1200-465: A storm; none of her crew were ever seen or heard from again. In October 1821, while sailing off Cape San Antonio, Cuba , USS Enterprise came to the assistance of three merchant vessels that had been seized by four pirate vessels. Boats were launched and attacked the brigands; in the end, over 40 pirates were killed or captured and two of their vessels taken. A month later, the Enterprise attacked

1280-887: A total of 27 American merchant ships were captured. Between 1818 and 1821 the USS Enterprise captured 13 pirate and slave ships while serving with the New Orleans Squadron – later in the West Indies. On 24 October 1819, while under command of Lieutenant J.R. Madison, USS Lynx captured two pirate schooners and two boats in the Gulf of Mexico, and on 9 November she captured another pirate boat in Galveston Bay . Lynx disappeared in January 1820 while sailing to Jamaica , she likely sank due to

1360-480: A total of over 1,500 officers, sailors and marine personnel. Before only single-ship operations had been undertaken. Over the course of a few decades these vessels continually engaged Spanish , Venezuelan , Cuban and Puerto Rican pirates. Many of the actions ended with the sinking or capturing of pirate vessels though often the outlaws escaped to shore. Caribbean pirates of the era were Latin Americans who (usually) doubled as privateers . Revolution against Spain

1440-576: The Earl of Mornington , an East India Company packet ship of only six guns, also carried a letter of marque. Letters of marque and privateers are largely credited for the age of Elizabethan exploration , because privateers were used to explore the seas. Under the Crown, Sir Francis Drake , Sir Walter Raleigh , and Sir Martin Frobisher sailed the seas as privateers; their expedition reports helped shape

1520-615: The Beagle , and Grampus . There he landed a shore party on 14 November and demanded an apology from the Spanish. Eventually the Spaniards agreed to make a public apology, so the expedition boarded their ships and sailed away. The United States government was not pleased by Commodore Porter's actions; he was court martialed before resigning his commission. Commodore Porter was relieved of duty in February 1825, and joined and became head of

1600-527: The Mexican Navy from 1827 to 1829. The American operation against pirates in the West Indies was declared a victory in 1825. In March 1825, the Gallinipper was accompanied by the frigate HMS  Dartmouth and the schooners HMS  Lion and HMS  Union in an operation against Cuban pirates. U.S. Navy Lieutenant Isaac McKeever, in command, led an attack against a pirate schooner at

1680-466: The President signed letters of marque. A shipowner applied for such a letter of marque by stating the name, description, tonnage , and force (armaments) of the vessel, the name and residence of the owner, and the intended number of crew, and tendered a bond promising strict observance of the country's laws and treaties , and of international laws and customs. The United States granted the commission to

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1760-633: The Proto-Indo-European root *merǵ- , meaning boundary, or border. The French marque is from the Provençal language marca , which is from marcar , also Provençal, meaning to seize as a pledge. According to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first recorded use of "letters of marque and reprisal" was in an English statute in 1354 during the reign of King Edward III . The phrase referred to "a licen[c]e granted by

1840-802: The Seminoles started in 1835, the United States Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson ordered the West Indies Squadron under Commodore A.J. Dallas to begin campaigning along the Florida coast and swamplands. USS Vandalia was one of the warships assigned to these operations. In November 1836, marines and sailors in boats from the squadron engaged Seminole warriors in Wahoo Swamp . During

1920-572: The action , two of the schooners were captured and at least 14 pirates were killed. Three significant engagements occurred between the British and the pirates in 1822 and 1823. A British merchant ship under Captain William Smith was taken over by Spanish pirates of the schooner Emanuel in July 1822. The pirates made the British commander walk the plank and when he attempted to swim away, he

2000-603: The enumerated powers of Congress, alongside the power to tax and to declare war. However, since the American Civil War, the United States as a matter of policy has consistently followed the terms of the 1856 Paris Declaration forbidding the practice. The United States has not legally commissioned any privateers since 1815, although the status of submarine-hunting Goodyear airships in the early days of World War II created significant confusion. Various accounts refer to airships Resolute and Volunteer as operating under

2080-532: The slave trade in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico but it was not until 1822 that a permanent squadron was formed. American warships were assigned to anti-piracy operations in the West Indies as early as 1817 but after a September 1821 attack by pirates, in which three American merchant ships were captured, the United States Congress authorized Commodore James Biddle to dispatch a fleet to

2160-467: The 1830s. Whenever the squadron was not searching for criminals on the sea, it operated by convoying merchant ships. United States naval operations in the West Indies were eventually turned over to the Home Squadron and the Brazil Squadron by 1842. Before it disbanded, the West Indies Squadron engaged in one last Caribbean conflict with the native Americans of Florida. When the conflict with

2240-652: The Admiralty Court an estimate of actual losses incurred. Licensing privateers during wartime became widespread in Europe by the 16th century, when most countries began to enact laws regulating the granting of letters of marque and reprisal. Such business could be very profitable; during the eight years of the American Revolutionary War , ships from the tiny island of Guernsey carrying letter of marque captured French and American vessels to

2320-652: The American War of Independence, the Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812 , it was common to distinguish verbally between privateers (also known as private ships of war) on the one hand, and armed merchantmen, which were referred to as "letters of marque", on the other, though both received the same commission. The Sir John Sherbrooke (Halifax) was a privateer; the Sir John Sherbrooke (Saint John)

2400-418: The Caribbean. This force consisted of two frigates , USS Macedonian , and USS Congress , two corvettes , USS Cyane and USS John Adams , two sloops-of-war , USS Hornet and USS Peacock , two brigs , USS Spark and USS Enterprise , and the schooners USS Grampus , USS Alligator , USS Shark and USS Porpoise . Two gunboats , No. 158 and No. 168 also participated with

2480-534: The Confederate sailors were convicted and hanged, and the Union eventually agreed to treat Confederate privateers as prisoners of war. Privateers were also required by the terms of their letters of marque to obey the laws of war, honour treaty obligations (avoid attacking neutrals), and in particular to treat captives as courteously and kindly as they safely could. If they failed to live up to their obligations,

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2560-754: The Congress of Paris at the end of the Crimean War , seven European states signed the Paris Declaration of 1856 renouncing privateering, and 45 more countries eventually joined them, which in effect abolished privateering worldwide. The United States was among a few countries that were not signatory to that declaration. In December 1941 and the first months of 1942, Goodyear commercial L-class blimp Resolute operating out of Moffett Field in Sunnyvale , California, flew anti-submarine patrols. As

2640-601: The French privateer General Malartic , under Jean-Marie Dutertre , an action made legal by a letter of marque. Additionally, vessels with a letter of marque were exempt from having to sail in convoy , and nominally their crew members were exempt, during a voyage, from impressment . During the Napoleonic Wars, the Dart and Kitty , British privateers, spent some months off the coast of Sierra Leone hunting slave-trading vessels. The procedure for issuing letters of marque, and

2720-532: The King's enemies at sea in return for splitting the proceeds between the privateers and the Crown . The letter of marque and reprisal was documented in 1295, 50 years after wartime privateer licenses were first issued. According to Grotius, letters of marque and reprisal were akin to a "private war", a concept alien to modern sensibilities but related to an age when the ocean was lawless and all merchant vessels sailed armed for self-defense. A reprisal involved seeking

2800-603: The Navy Thompson authorized Commodore Porter to procure new vessels for the squadron. Porter acquired eight shallow-draft schooners, five large barges , a steam powered riverboat , and a storeship schooner. All commissioned in 1822, the schooners were each armed with three guns and became the USS Beagle , USS Ferret , USS Fox , USS Greyhound , USS Weasel , and the USS Wild Cat . The storeship

2880-481: The USS Enterprise captured two launches and four boats in a creek near Cape San Antonio , and on 6 March she seized eight more craft and over 150 pirates. USS Grampus encountered the brig Palyrma [ sic ? ] flying Spanish colors on 15 August 1822. Commanding Lieutenant Gregory suspected the ship to be a pirate so he approached to board but as the Grampus drew near, Palyrma opened fire and fought

2960-484: The United States he died of yellow fever at Trinidad , which led to failure of the agreement. The first American vessels to serve against West Indies piracy were part of an unofficial squadron which became the founding warships of the prolonged operation. The schooners USS Enterprise , USS Nonsuch , and USS Lynx with the gunboats No. 158 and No. 168 were among the vessels deployed between 1817 and 1822. All of these ships operated independently and there

3040-464: The action, Army Major David Moniac was killed while the expedition attempted to cross a stream of unknown depth. Under heavy fire, the American marines and soldiers were forced to retreat. Men of the West Indies Squadron engaged in another defeat at Jupiter Inlet in January ;1838. At this battle, an expedition under Lieutenant Levin M. Powell landed 80 sailors and marines near

3120-435: The admiralty courts could — and did — revoke the letter of marque, refuse to award prize money, forfeit bonds, or even award tort (personal injury) damages against the privateer's officers and crew. States often agreed by treaty to forgo privateering between them, as England and France repeatedly did starting with the diplomatic overtures of Edward III in 1324; privateering nonetheless recurred in every war between them for

3200-541: The age of Elizabethan exploration. In July 1793, the East Indiamen Royal Charlotte , Triton , and Warley participated in the capture of Pondichéry by maintaining a blockade of the port. Afterwards, while sailing to China, the same three East Indiamen participated in an action in the Straits of Malacca . They came upon a French frigate , with some six or seven British prizes, with

3280-694: The authority to imprison them. Neither could the United States Navy pursue the pirates on Spanish soil. When, in April 1822, Commodore David Porter , in USS Macedonian , assumed command of the station, one of his first missions was to consult with Cuban Governor Captain General Don Nicholas Mahy of Cuba, and the governor of Puerto Rico. Both governors denied Porter's request to allow American shore parties to land; at

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3360-589: The civilian crew was armed with a rifle, a persistent misconception arose that this made the ship a privateer and that she and sister commercial blimps were operated under letters of marque until the Navy took over operation. Without Congressional authorization, the Navy would not have been able to legally issue any letters of marque. Article I of the United States Constitution lists issuing letters of marque and reprisal in Section 8 as one of

3440-431: The coast. Due to the low depth, a boat was used to attack the remaining craft but when the Americans came within range, the pirates opened fire and shot a hole through the boat, which returned to Ferret and sank. With their only boat sunk, the Americans were forced to continue their patrol and the brigands got to shore. Later that day, Ferret commandeered a small vessel with a shallow draft and returned to where their boat

3520-543: The flags of three different countries and on opposite sides in the same war. Likewise the notorious Lafitte brothers in New Orleans cruised under letters of marque secured by bribery from corrupt officials of tenuous Central American governments, to cloak plunder with a thin veil of legality. The letter of marque by its terms required privateers to bring captured vessels and their cargoes before admiralty courts of their own or allied countries for condemnation. Applying

3600-447: The frigate USS Constellation , the corvette USS John Adams , and USS Nonsuch . The commodore's orders were to demand restitution for attacks on United States' merchant ships by Venezuelan privateers, and to receive an assurance that the privateers would be restrained from capturing American vessels. Perry was initially successful in completing his mission, and a treaty was signed on 11 August 1819. However, on his cruise back to

3680-631: The history of the West Indies Squadron, tropical disease was common among the American warships which had to sail back to the United States when outbreaks occurred. By January 1824, most of the West Indies Squadron ships had been recalled, mainly because of illness, though in February the squadron under Commodore Porter returned to operate for a few months before sailing north again in July. During this time, piracy in Puerto Rican waters began to briefly rise until mid-1825, between July and August, ten attacks on American merchant vessels were reported and only

3760-602: The issuing authority, varied by time and circumstance. In colonial British America , for instance, colonial governors issued such letters in the name of the Crown. During the American War of Independence , authorization shifted from individual state legislatures , followed by both the states and the Continental Congress , and lastly, after ratification of the Constitution , only Congress authorized and

3840-718: The letters of marque issued by James while in exile in France, and prosecuted captured sailors operating under them as pirates. During the American Civil War , Union authorities likewise attempted to prosecute Confederate privateers for the criminal act of piracy. When the Confederate privateer Savannah was captured in 1861, its crew was put on trial in New York. The Confederate government, however, threatened to execute captured Union soldiers in retaliation if any of

3920-560: The list of vessels assigned to counter piracy. In January 1822, Elton captured a Dutch -flagged pirate sloop. Seven prisoners were taken to Charleston for trial. Spark then returned to the Caribbean and remained on station for the next three years, by which time the official West Indies Squadron was formed. When the United States Navy began campaigning against the pirates, the Royal Navy was quick to follow suit and created their own West Indies Squadron . In March 1822, boat crews from

4000-412: The merchant brig Bolina . Forty sailors were lowered into five boats and Ramage's command. Though some of the pirates fled to shore, many resisted, and the five American boats destroyed the five pirate ships by burning them, and freed Bolina . Three pirates were captured and several killed according to reports. In autumn of 1821, USS Spark , under Lieutenant John Elton, departed Boston and joined

4080-451: The mouth of the Sagua la Grande River . American and British forces took the ship, killed eight outlaws and captured 19 others with only one man wounded. On the following day, another schooner was captured but the pirates escaped and the vessel was taken without bloodshed. This mission was one of the first joint operations conducted by British and American forces. Famed pirate Roberto Cofresí

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4160-715: The next 500 years. Benjamin Franklin had attempted to persuade the French to lead by example and stop issuing letters of marque to their corsairs, but the effort foundered when war loomed with Britain once again. The French Convention did forbid the practice, but it was reinstated after the Thermidorian Reaction , in August 1795; on 26 September 1797, the Ministry of the Navy was authorized to sell small ships to private parties for this purpose. Finally, after

4240-637: The pirate Captain Cayatano Aragonez's 5-gun ship Zaragozana on 31 March 1823 in a running battle. The two British ships chased Captain Aragonez into Mata Harbor, Cuba, where boats were lowered and captured the vessel. Ten pirates were killed and 28 were captured while the Royal Navy sustained only slight casualties. The Royal Navy took Zaragozana into service as HMS  Renegade ; Aragonez and most of his men were hanged at Port Royal. Due to fall-out over Lieutenant Allen 's death, Secretary of

4320-528: The pirates the shore party wore civilian clothes, and as result they were arrested by the Spanish Army and charged with piracy. Platt explained why he was out of uniform and later on the Spanish allowed one of his men to retrieve the lieutenant's uniform and commission. Upon seeing this, the Spaniards released the Americansd. When Commodore Porter heard of this he sailed to Fajardo with USS John Adams ,

4400-461: The privateer. A common practice among Europeans from the late Middle Ages to the 19th century, cruising for enemy prizes with a letter of marque was considered an honorable calling that combined patriotism and profit. Such legally authorized privateering contrasted with unlicensed captures of random ships, known as piracy , which was universally condemned. In practice, the differences between privateers and pirates were sometimes slight, even merely

4480-436: The rest abandoned ship and escaped; British casualties were two men killed and seven wounded, including the midshipman commanding Eliza . HMS  Grecian , with six guns, captured the 8-gun schooner La Cata on 1 March 1823, south of Cuba. Thirty brigands were killed in the action and only three were taken prisoner, out of a force of over 100 men. HMS Tyne , with 26 guns, and HMS  Thracian , with 18 guns, defeated

4560-425: The rules and customs of prize law , the courts decided whether the letter of marque was valid and current, and whether the captured vessel or its cargo in fact belonged to the enemy (not always easy, when flying false flags was common practice), and if so the prize and its cargo were "condemned", to be sold at auction with the proceeds divided among the privateer's owner and crew. A prize court's formal condemnation

4640-420: The sailors and marines on board fired volleys into their fleeing enemy, shouting "Allen, Allen" in the process. An American landing party attacked the 15 pirates who made it ashore; 11 more were killed and the last four were captured by the Cuban villagers. In total about 70 pirates were killed; only five survived. On 21 July 1823, the commanders of Beagle and Greyhound were investigating Cape Cruz , Cuba, in

4720-498: The ship and set her on fire. Grampus arrived when the Shiboleth was still burning and took off her surviving crew. The same pirates attacked another merchant ship a few days later before being detected by the Spanish Army and jailed. In June 1823, the USS Ferret ' s crew skirmished with the brigands. During one incident, Ferret found a few pirate craft in shallow water off Matanzas . First Ferret attacked using her broadside guns and sank two boats among those fleeing along

4800-420: The sovereign's permission to exact private retribution against some foreign prince or subject. The earliest instance of a licensed reprisal recorded in England was in the year 1295 under the reign of King Edward I . The notion of reprisal, and behind it that just war involved avenging a wrong, was associated with the letter of marque until 1620 in England. To apply for such a letter, a shipowner had to submit to

4880-429: The specific terrorists, instead of warring against a foreign state. The terrorists were compared to pirates in that they are difficult to fight by traditional military means. On April 15, 2009, Paul also advocated the use of letters of marque to address the issue of Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden . However, the bills Paul introduced were not enacted into law. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine ,

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4960-487: The time the United States government did permit the West Indies Squadron to do so, but only in remote areas. Commodore Porter then attacked and destroyed a pirate force at Funda Bay, Cuba, between 28 and 30 September 1822. Also on 28 September Peacock captured a boat filled with pirates about 60 miles from Havana . Later that afternoon Peacock met the merchant vessel Speedwell which was attacked by pirates two hours before. In response, Captain Stephen Cassin launched

5040-561: The title West Indies Squadron . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=West_Indies_Squadron&oldid=651476878 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages West Indies Squadron (United States) United States Navy ships had for years operated against piracy and

5120-526: The value of £ 900,000 (equivalent to £145,029,851 in 2023). Privateers from Guernsey continued to operate during the Napoleonic Wars . Although privateering commissions and letters of marque were originally distinct legal concepts, such distinctions became purely technical by the 18th century. Article I of the United States Constitution , for instance, states that "The Congress shall have Power To ... grant Letters of marque and reprisal ...", without separately addressing privateer commissions. During

5200-419: The vessel, not to its captain, often for a limited time or specified area, and stated the enemy upon whom attacks were permitted. For example, during the Second Barbary War (1815), President James Madison authorized the brig Grand Turk (out of Salem, Massachusetts) to cruise against "Algerine vessels, public or private, goods and effects, of or belonging to the Dey of Algiers ". This particular commission

5280-402: Was USS Decoy , and the steamer became USS Sea Gull . The new squadron left the United States for Cuba on 15 February 1823. Commodore Biddle also received new orders of conduct: he was now permitted to land shore parties in populated areas, as long as he informed the locals first. Biddle was also ordered to cooperate with any other sovereign naval forces operating against pirates. USS Fox

5360-422: Was defeated on 5 March by the USS Grampus and two Spanish sloops off Boca del Infierno . Cofresi was considered the last successful Caribbean pirate and was executed on 29 March 1825. From 1827 to 1830, the West Indies Squadron was commanded by Charles G. Ridgely and engaged in anti-piracy activities. Piracy declined in the region, though isolated incidents involving the squadron and pirates continued into

5440-430: Was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair , to attack and capture vessels of a foreign state at war with the issuer, licensing international military operations against a specified enemy as reprisal for a previous attack or injury. Captured naval prizes were judged before the government's admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to

5520-421: Was an armed merchantman. The East India Company arranged for letters of marque for its East Indiamen ships, such as the Lord Nelson . They did not need permission to carry cannons to fend off warships, privateers, and pirates on their voyages to India and China but, the letters of marque provided that, should they have the opportunity to take a prize, they could do so without being guilty of piracy. Similarly,

5600-493: Was entitled to honorable treatment as prisoners of war , while without the licence they were deemed mere pirates " at war with all the world ," criminals who were properly hanged . For this reason, enterprising maritime raiders commonly took advantage of " flag of convenience " letters of marque, shopping for cooperative governments to license and legitimize their depredations. French/Irishman Captain Luke Ryan and his lieutenants in just over two years commanded six vessels under

5680-401: Was killed in 1822. The three American vessels encountered a heavily armed schooner with a crew of about 75 near a Cuban village. The United States Navy attacked with their cannon and the schooner was hit, so her captain began a retreat. When further hits struck the schooner, the pirates panicked and began to abandon ship by jumping into the water. The barges maneuvered in close to the schooner and

5760-538: Was never put to use, as it was issued July 3, 1815, the same day the treaty was signed, ending the U.S. involvement in the war. In Britain in the 18th century, the High Court of Admiralty issued Letters of Marque. It was customary for the proposed privateer to pay a deposit or bond, possibly £1,500 (equivalent to £284,456 in 2023) as surety for good behaviour. The details of the ship, including tonnage, crew and weapons were recorded. The ownership of these ships

5840-406: Was no one commander of the squadron until its official establishment. On 22 December 1817, USS John Adams forced the pirate Luis Aury to evacuate his base at Amelia Island , Florida . Later, John Adams was flagship of Commodore Biddle's squadron. By 1820, conflict with the pirates and privateers started to increase: United States warships engaged in several naval actions that year, and

5920-400: Was often split into ⅛ shares. Prizes were assessed and valued with profits split in pre-agreed proportions among the government, the owners, and the captain and crew. A letter of marque and reprisal in effect converted a private merchant vessel into a naval auxiliary. A commissioned privateer enjoyed the protection and was subject to the obligations of the laws of war . If captured, the crew

6000-478: Was one of the main reasons why an anti-piracy operation was launched. USS Hornet captured a privateer schooner named Moscow on 29 October 1821 and on 21 December she captured a pirate ship apparently without a fight; the pirates escaped to shore. On 16 December 1821, the USS ; Porpoise , Lieutenant James Ramage commanding, was sailing off Cape San Antonio and found five enemy vessels, including

6080-423: Was required to transfer title; otherwise the vessel's previous owners might well reclaim her on her next voyage, and seek damages for the confiscated cargo. Questions sometimes arose as to the legitimacy of a letter of marque, especially in cases of disputed sovereignty during civil wars or rebellions. Following the deposition of James II of England , for instance, the new Privy Council of England did not recognize

6160-777: Was sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico , in March 1823 to obtain a list of all legally commissioned privateers and a details of their instructions. When the American schooner entered San Juan Harbor on 3 March an artillery battery fired on the ship. A few shots hit the Fox which mortally wounded Lieutenant W.H. Cocke, her commander. Commodore Porter later accepted an apology for the incident from Puerto Rico's governor. Two barges, USS Gallinipper and USS Mosquito , liberated an American merchant vessel on 8 April. The navy sailors killed two pirates and arrested another, though most got away. On 16 April Mosquito , Gallinipper , and USS Peacock , spotted

6240-464: Was shot in the back. Also on the ship was the captain's 14-year-old son; the pirate captain crushed the boy's head when the pirate could no longer stand to hear the crying child. On 30 September 1822, a 5-gun pirate felucca named Firme Union and 5-gun schooner named El Diabelito attacked the 1-gun sloop Eliza , a tender to HMS  Tyne . During the engagement that ensued, the British boarded and captured Firme Union . Ten pirates were killed and

6320-471: Was sunk, hoping to engage the pirates again, but bad weather stopped the operation. The following morning the Americans encountered a British merchantman that gave them a boat. Ferret returned to the waters off Matanzas, but only found the two sunken boats that she had destroyed earlier. On 5 July 1823, USS Sea Gull , under the command of Lieutenant Watson , with the barges Gallinipper and Mosquito , fought pirates off Matanzas, near where Lieutenant Allen

6400-483: Was widespread and both the Spanish and the rebel governments issued letters of marque . The privateers often captured American merchantmen and attacked their crews. Since the United States was not at war with Spain or any of the rebel Latin American governments, the letters of marque did not apply to U.S. vessels and the Americans branded all persons attacking U.S. flagged vessels as “ pirates ”. In 1819 President James Monroe sent Commodore Perry to Venezuela with

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