Privateer

A privateer was a privately owned vessel whose crew received government authorization to attack enemy shipping during wartime. Privateering let states wage naval war using privately financed ships.

Letter of marque: A government commission authorizing a private person or vessel to capture enemy ships or property during war. This document gave a privateer lawful authority to seize enemy shipping.
Francis Drake: An English navigator and naval commander who raided Spanish shipping and settlements in the sixteenth century. His voyages exemplified how English authorities used privately financed raiding against Spain.
Barbary corsairs: North African maritime raiders who seized ships and captives, sometimes operating under state authority. Their state-backed attacks on shipping resembled privateering but arose from distinct political and legal traditions.
Pirate ship: A vessel used to commit robbery or violence at sea without authorization from a state. Unlike a privateer, a pirate ship lacked lawful permission to attack enemy vessels.
Prize law: The body of law governing the capture and adjudication of ships and goods during war at sea. It determined whether a privateer's capture was lawful and who could claim the proceeds.
Elizabethan era: The period of Elizabeth I's reign in England, from 1558 to 1603. English privateering expanded as England contested Spanish power during Elizabeth I's reign.
Atlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic to labor in the Americas from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Privateers sometimes targeted slave-trading vessels, while wartime captures also disrupted this commerce.
Auxiliary cruiser: A merchant vessel converted or equipped to serve as a naval warship. Auxiliary cruisers were state-operated combatants, unlike privately owned privateers.
Prize court: A court that decides whether captured ships or cargo are lawful prizes and how they should be distributed. A captured vessel usually had to be condemned by a prize court before its value could be shared.
Spanish Armada: The Spanish fleet sent to invade England in 1588, defeated after a campaign in the English Channel and North Sea. The conflict with Spain gave English privateers a central role in maritime warfare.

Linked from 14 pages