The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy Book 1)

by Rick Atkinson

Yet as Franklin well understood, a belligerent fleet of privateers was greatly aiding the American cause. Exploiting a form of naval warfare used since the thirteenth century, colonial governments in the fall of 1775 had begun issuing letters of marque and reprisal to authorize attacks on enemy vessels by private shipowners. Congress followed suit a few months later. A report to the House of Lords indicated that privateers had taken 733 British merchantmen since the first shots at Lexington; those ships would be among 3,400 captured during the war—a vast flotilla of impounded Betsys, Bettys, Hannahs, Janes, Isabellas, Susannahs, and more than a few Johns. About two thousand armed American privateers, carrying eighteen thousand guns and seventy thousand sailors, would prey on enemy shipping on both sides of the Atlantic. Massachusetts alone sent out five Bunker Hills, fifteen Resolutions, no fewer than twenty-one Revenges, and many a Washington, Franklin, and General Arnold. Privateers inevitably competed with the Continental Navy for manpower, munitions, and booty. Discipline was looser on a privateer—naval officers prohibited cursing and required sailors to attend church service twice daily—and the rewards were greater, since those holding private commissions kept the full value of prizes, while Congress now forced naval ships to remit to the public treasury half the value of enemy merchantmen seized. A solicitation in one port beckoned “all gentlemen volunteers who are d...