Year: 1996
Type: article
Abstract: On the evening of 12 April 1793, the mail packet brought the startling news to Halifax that war had been declared with revolutionary France two months previously.The word was soon all over town and became official the next day when the Lieutenant Governor, John Wentworth, issued a proclamation, almost half of which was a hearty invitation to privateering: His Majesty's Subjects having this Notice may take care on the one hand, to prevent any Mischief which otherwise they might suffer from the French and on the other, may do their utmost in their several stations to distress and Annoy them by making Capture of their Ships, and by destroying their Commerce, for which purpose his Majesty has been pleased to order Letters of marque or Commissions of privateers to be granted in the usual manner. 1 The "usual manner" was well understood by Nova Scotia mariners whatever their stations.Privateers were privately-owned warships licensed by the state to attack enemy vessels and permitted to keep the proceeds, as long as they adhered to an elaborate set of regulations administered by the Court of Vice-Admiralty.Privateering from Nova Scotia had a long history.French privateers had played important roles in the attack, defence and supply of Port Royal and Louisbourg.Halifax had fielded eighteen privateers in the Seven Years' War and issued seventy-seven privateering licenses, or letters of marque, during the American Revolution.In the grand finale of this activity, forty Nova Scotia and New Brunswick privateers took 200 prizes in the War of 1812. 2 This article examines Nova Scotia-based privateering from the outbreak of war in 1793 until 1805.While privateering was well understood then, today it is a rather exotic subject.Privateers were essential tools of war until the rise of large steam navies in the mid-nineteenth century, although their use and control varied considerably with place and period.The published history of Canadian privateering has been dominated by popular and romantic writers who glorified privateers as the precursors of the Canadian navy and often credited them with single-handedly winning the War of 1812.In reaction, professional historians have been dismissive, often, as in a recent survey history of The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du nord, VI, No. 4 (October 1996), 29-46. 30The Northern Mariner Atlantic Canada, dismissing them as "mere legalised pirates" who were irrelevant and ineffective.3 A careful examination of the evidence, however, suggests that the "patriotism versus greed" dichotomy is of little use in understanding why people were drawn to privateering.4 Rather than greedy investors or patriotic navy builders, privateers were a response to a specific commercial crisis with the West Indies that left merchants and mariners, especially those outside Halifax, very few options.John Wentworth clearly felt a need for local armed vessels, especially once the Royal Navy redeployed almost all its Halifax squadron to the Caribbean in 1793, leaving the twenty-eight-gun frigate Hussar as the only major ship on station.5 "I wish to God, I had an armed Schooner," Wentworth wrote to London.But the authority to issue letters of marque was not given him until 1803.The reasons for the delay are unclear.Wentworth's many pleading letters were answered by reassurances that authorization was on the way but had been "omitted in the pressure of greater concerns."6 There are several possible explanations.In the first year of the war the Vice-Admiralty Courts in the West Indies issued many letters of marque and approved a large number of captures, by both privateers and naval ships, with little scrutiny.In 1801 the Admiralty closed most of these courts in a major reform of the prize system, but in the short term it may have been trying to limit abuse by constraining the number of licenses.7 Moreover, accusations of incompetence and infirmity aimed at the seventy-seven-year-old Judge of the Halifax Vice-Admiralty Court, Richard Bulkeley, combined with uncertainty about his successor and criticism of Wentworth's management of the Halifax defences, may also have fuelled doubts about vesting this authority in Halifax.8 Deprived of this power, Wentworth initially attacked the problem by issuing commissions in lieu of letters of marque: Thomas Melvill master of the ship Britannia burthen 301 tons bound for England did apply to me for., .aLetter of Marque and Reprisal against the French which I would have granted, but that the authority to me from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for that purpose has not yet arrived.In the meantime I have assured the said Thomas Melvill...that His Majesty will consider him as having a just claim to the Kings share of all French ships and property which he may make prize of.9 Wentworth was well within his right to issue these "commissions in lieu," as they came to be called.Governors had considerable discretion when it came to defensive measures in wartime, especially if they did not burden the treasury.The two "commissions in lieu" had the same effect in the Halifax Vice-Admiralty Court as letters of marque, although they made less of an impression at sea or in courts outside the colony.These commissions served Nova Scotia privateers and provincial naval vessels until well into 1803 and successfully withstood legal scrutiny by the Royal Navy. 10 The commission granted Britannia in 1793 was the first of about thirty given to armed trading ships in Halifax during the wars with France and Spain (appendix 1 ).These were not privateers in the strict sense, as their primary purpose was still to carry cargo.Moreover, they are easily distinguished from privateers by their relatively small man-ton ratios.11 Making voyages to stated destinations and paying crews wages rather than shares,
Author: Dan Conlin
Language: English
Subfield: Transportation
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W569549255