MARQUE AND REPRISAL PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Elizabeth Moon | 400 pages | 30 Aug 2005 | Random House USA Inc | 9780345447593 | English | New York, United States Marque and Reprisal - Vessels, Letters, Privateering, and Privateers - JRank Articles Transporting goods across the Atlantic took many days and posed many risks to merchant vessels. As a fledgling nation, the U. International disputes required the U. At the time, bribery was a common diplomatic practice of many countries. Congress and the American public were outraged. Adams was able to avert a declaration of war by his diplomatic efforts to negotiate peace with France. Negotiations broke down and an undeclared war, known as the Quasi-War, erupted between the two countries. There were few engagements, mainly at sea. France made great use of letters of marque and reprisal, seizing more than 2, U. President Thomas Jefferson preferred diplomacy to war in his approach to international relations. Early in his administration, he sought to reduce the size of the armed forces fearing that a large army and navy would invite dictatorship. Since virtually all economic trade between the US and other nations was via maritime channels, mercantile ships were often targeted on all sides of conflicts, by naval forces and privateers. Jefferson sought other means to protect American shipping. They would capture vessels, seize cargoes and hold crews for ransom or for use as slaves. Before the American Revolution, ships from the American colonies were generally safe from pirates because Great Britain paid the pirates the extortions they demanded. After the colonies won independence from Britain, U. This loss forced early U. Leaders along the Barbary Coast saw this opportunity to extort larger tributes for safe passage of ships. Tripoli declared war on the U. The First Barbary War, from to , involved extensive use of letters of marque and reprisal, on both sides of the conflict. Ships were seized by all sides. After four years of fighting, the US signed a treaty with Tripoli. The U. To ensure safe passage of its vessels, the U. Britain blockaded French coasts to prevent shipping into France. Napoleon I retaliated by issuing the Berlin Decree in May , which imposed an embargo against British trade, prohibiting the import of British goods by European allies or dependent on France. All trade and connections were severed, even the mail. Napoleon planned to defeat Britain by choking its vital ability to trade. Mercantile interests in many countries, including the U. However, U. To capitalize on this, Britain and France captured U. Britain detained more than 1, U. This infuriated the American people and prompted calls for retaliation. Tensions intensified, culminating in when the British frigate Leopard stopped the American ship, Chesapeake, off the Virginia coast and demanded to search it. Jefferson ordered all British ships to leave U. He felt that British and French reliance on American products would convince one or both nations to negotiate with the U. In enforcing the embargo, the U. The impact on Britain from the Continental Blockade and the U. Embargo Act was limited. Enforcement of the embargo was weak and encouraged British merchants to seek new markets. Similarly, the Earl of Mornington , an East India Company packet ship of only six guns, too carried a letter of marque. Afterwards, as they were on their way 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 [ clarification needed ] prizes, 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. 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 there were also two cases Dart and Kitty , where British privateers spent some months off the coast of Sierra Leone hunting slave-trading vessels. The procedure for issuing letters of marque and the issuing authority varied by time and circumstance. In colonial America, for instance, colonial governors issued them in the name of the king. During the American War of Independence, first the state legislatures, then both the states and the Continental Congress, then, after ratification of the Constitution , Congress authorized and the President signed letters of marque. A shipowner would send in an application 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 commission was granted to the vessel, not to its captain, often for a limited time or specified area, and stated the enemy upon whom attacks were permitted. The details of the ship, including tonnage, crew and weapons were recorded. Prizes were assessed and valued with profits split in pre agreed proportions between 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 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. 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 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 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. Often questions arose as to the legitimacy of the letter of marque in the case of divided sovereignty during civil wars. An English court, for instance, refused to recognize the letters of marque issued by rebellious Ireland under James II , and hanged eight privateer captains as pirates. Seventy-nine years later during the American Civil War , the Union charged officers and crew of the Confederate privateer Savannah with piracy, calling their letter of marque invalid since the Union refused to acknowledge the breakaway Confederacy as a sovereign nation. 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. Nations often agreed by treaty to forgo privateering, as England and France repeatedly did starting with the diplomatic overtures of Edward III in ; privateering nonetheless recurred in every war between them for the next 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. In the absence of proper letters, a privateer was tantamount to a pirate. Although privateers allegedly existed in order to support the defense of their sovereigns, they frequently acquired much personal wealth through their activities. In addition, since privateers were not subject to the same discipline as a regular navy, they yielded to the temptation to seize ships beyond the scope of their authority. Such abuses, and new theories of naval warfare led civilized nations, in , to sign an agreement outlawing privateering. The agreement does not prohibit a state from organizing a voluntary navy of private vessels, which are under the dominion and control of the state. Letter of marque - Wikipedia Abraham Lincoln was authorized to issue letters of marque, but both sides preferred to arm their own merchantmen as regular warships. The rise of the professional American navy at the end of the 19th century and the American embrace of the sea power doctrines of Alfred Thayer Mahan finally led the U. It was agreed, after a vain attempt to solve the question in a way satisfactory to all parties, that the subject of conversion on the high seas was outside the scope of the Declaration of Paris. The raising of merchant vessels to the status of warships led to difficulty in distinguishing between volunteer warships and privateers. That subject was made one of those for settlement by the Second Hague Conference in Several conventions on naval warfare in respect to merchant vessels at sea were adopted, but the one setting up an international prize court to hear appeals from belligerent prize courts was never ratified. The rules adopted were as follows:. The ambiguous status of the privateer has ceased to exist, and letters of marque are no longer issued, as belligerent countries now assume full responsibility for all converted ships engaged in military operations. Letter of marque Article Media Additional Info. Print Cite. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites.