The following is an installment of “On This Day,” a series celebrating America’s 250th anniversary by following the actions of Gen. George Washington, the Continental Congress, and the men and women whose bravery and sacrifice led up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
April 3, 1776
The American patriots may lack sufficient funds to build a strong navy, but that doesn’t stop them from finding ways to achieve that goal. On April 3, 1776, the Second Continental Congress grants permission to privateers to attack any and all British ships.
The bill, signed by Second Continental Congress president John Hancock, issued “INSTRUCTIONS to the COMMANDERS of Private Ships or vessels of War, which shall have Commissions of Letters of Marque and Reprisal, authorizing them to make Captures of British Vessels and Cargoes.”
Congress informed American privateers:
“YOU may, by Force of Arms, attack, subdue, and take all Ships and other Vessels belonging to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, on the high seas, or between high-water and low-water Marks, except Ships and Vessels bringing Persons who intend to settle and reside in the United Colonies, or bringing Arms, Ammunition or Warlike Stores to the said Colonies, for the Use of such Inhabitants thereof as are Friends to the American Cause, which you shall suffer to pass unmolested, the Commanders thereof permitting a peaceable Search, and giving satisfactory Information of the Contents of the Ladings, and Destinations of the Voyages.”
So what was the difference between a privateer and a pirate? Fairly nonexistent to those who faced them on the high seas. Their behavior was identical: capturing ships using force. But what privateers did have were Letters of Marque.
Letters of Marque were licenses granted by a government to privately-owned vessels, enabling them, under certain conditions, to go to war against the shipping of an enemy nation.
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Author Christopher Klein explained that privateers proved indispensable in the American Revolution, and it is important that we remember their role in forming our country.
“When it came to waging war at sea during the American Revolution, the mighty British Navy had a vast advantage over its small and inexperienced colonial counterpart. An armada of more than 2,000 so-called privateers commissioned by both the Continental Congress and individual states preyed on enemy shipping on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, severely disrupting the British economy and turning British public opinion against the war.”