Editing Privateer (section)

==== American Revolutionary War ====
{{norefs|section|date=August 2023}}
{{main|American Revolutionary War}}
{{further|Naval battles of the American Revolutionary War}}
{{also|Whaleboat War}}
During the [[American Revolutionary War]], the [[Continental Congress]], and some state governments (on their own initiative), issued privateering licenses, authorizing "legal piracy", to merchant captains in an effort to take prizes from the British Navy and [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Tory]] (Loyalist) privateers. This was done due to the relatively small number of commissioned American naval vessels and the pressing need for [[prisoner exchange]].[[File:BriggObserveregagingtheJack29May1782HalifaxPublRDodd1Sept1784BerleyRobisonCollectionUSNavalAcademy.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|left|[[Naval battle off Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]]]]
About 55,000 American seamen served aboard the privateers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usmm.org/revolution.html|title=Privateers or Merchant Mariners help win the Revolutionary War|website=www.usmm.org|access-date=6 February 2019}}</ref> They quickly sold their prizes, dividing their profits with the financier (persons or company) and the state (colony). [[Long Island Sound]] became a hornets' nest of privateering activity during the [[American Revolution]] (1775–1783), as most transports to and from New York went through the Sound. [[New London, Connecticut]] was a chief privateering port for the American colonies, leading to the British Navy blockading it in 1778–1779. Chief financiers of privateering included Thomas & Nathaniel Shaw of New London and John McCurdy of [[Lyme, Connecticut|Lyme]]. In the months before the British raid on New London and Groton, a New London privateer took ''Hannah'' in what is regarded as the largest prize taken by any American privateer during the war. Retribution was likely part of Gov. Clinton's (NY) motivation for [[Arnold's Raid]], as the ''Hannah'' had carried many of his most cherished items.

American privateers are thought to have seized up to 300 British ships during the war. The British ship ''Jack'' was [[Naval battle off Cape Breton|captured]] and turned into an American privateer, only to be captured again by the British in the [[naval battle off Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]]. American privateers not only fought naval battles but also raided numerous communities in British colonies, such as the [[Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (1782)]].

The [[United States Constitution]] authorized the [[Congress of the United States|U.S. Congress]] to grant letters of marque and reprisal. Between the end of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, less than 30 years, Britain, France, [[Naples]], the [[Barbary States]], Spain, and the Netherlands seized approximately 2,500 American ships.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://orbat.com/site/history/historical/usa/usn1812.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109000731/http://orbat.com/site/history/historical/usa/usn1812.html|title=US Navy Fleet List War of 1812|archive-date=January 9, 2009}}</ref> Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual revenues in 1800<ref>{{cite web|last=Oren|first=Michael B.|title=The Middle East and the Making of the United States, 1776 to 1815|date=2005-11-03|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/05/11/michaelOren.html| access-date=2007-02-18}}</ref> and would lead the United States to fight the Barbary states in the [[First Barbary War]] and [[Second Barbary War]]s.