Editing Privateer (section)

==== War of 1812 ====

During the [[War of 1812]], both the British and the American governments used privateers, and the established system was very similar.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_11_04_06_tabarrok.pdf|author=Tabarrok, Alexander |date=Winter 2007 |title=The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Privateers |magazine=The Independent Review |volume=XI |issue=3 |pages=565–577 |issn=1086-1653}}</ref> U.S. Congress declared <blockquote>that war be and the same is hereby declared to exist between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof, and the United States of America and their Territories; and that the President of the United States is herby authorized to use the whole land and naval force of the United States to carry the same into effect, and to issue to private armed vessels of the United States commissions of marque and general reprisal, in such forms as he shall think proper, and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the Government of the said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the subjects thereof.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwac.html|title=Annals of Congress Home Page: U.S. Congressional Documents|website=American Memory - Library of Congress }}</ref></blockquote>[[James Madison|President Madison]] issued 500 [[Letter of marque|letters of marque]] authorizing privateers. Overall some 200 of the ships took prizes. The cost of buying and fitting of a large privateer was about $40,000 and prizes could net $100,000.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_EXH.WR.21|title=12 at Midnight; the Hibernia attempting to run the Comet down|website=npg.si.edu|access-date=2019-04-27|archive-date=2019-04-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427090411/https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_EXH.WR.21|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Captain [[Thomas Boyle]] was one of the famous and successful American privateers. He commanded the Baltimore schooner [[Comet (1810 clipper)|''Comet'']] and then later in the war the Baltimore clipper [[Chasseur (1812 clipper)|''Chasseur'']]. He captured over 50 British merchant ships during the war. One source<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the American privateers, and letters-of-marque during our war with England in the years 1812, '13 and '14 interspersed with several naval battles between American and British ships of war|last=Coggeshall, George|date=1861|publisher=G. Coggeshall|isbn=0665443757|oclc=1084236819}}</ref> estimated a total damage to the British merchant navy from ''Chasseur''<nowiki/>'s 1813-1815 activities at one and a half million dollars. In total, the Baltimore privateer fleet of 122 ships sunk or seized 500 British ships with an estimated value of $16&nbsp;million, which accounts about one-third of all the value of all prizes taken over the course of the whole war.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Maryland privateers, War of 1812|last=Huntsberry, Thomas Vincent|date=1983|publisher=J. Mart|oclc=16870651}}</ref> 

[[File:JDe Wolf.jpg|thumb|left|[[James De Wolf]]]]
On April 8, 1814, the British [[Essex, Connecticut#The Great Attack|attacked Essex, Connecticut, and burned the ships in the harbor]], due to the construction there of a number of privateers. This was the greatest financial loss of the entire War of 1812 suffered by the Americans. However, the private fleet of [[James De Wolf]], which sailed under the flag of the American government in 1812, was most likely a key factor in the naval campaign of the war. De Wolf's ship, the ''Yankee'', was possibly the most financially successful ship of the war. Privateers proved to be far more successful than their US Navy counterparts, claiming three-quarters of the 1600 British merchant ships taken during the war (although a third of these were recaptured prior to making landfall). One of the more successful of these ships was the ''[[Prince de Neufchatel]]'', which once captured nine British prizes in swift succession in the [[English Channel]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}}

[[Jean Lafitte]] and his privateers aided US General [[Andrew Jackson]] in the defeat of the British in the [[Battle of New Orleans]] in order to receive full pardons for their previous crimes.<ref name="ramsay62">Ramsay (1996), p. 62.</ref><ref name="ramsay69">Ramsay (1996), p. 69.</ref><ref name="ramsay70">Ramsay (1996), p. 70.</ref><ref name="ramsay71">Ramsay (1996), p. 71.</ref><ref name="ramsay77">Ramsay (1996), p. 77.</ref> Jackson formally requested clemency for Lafitte and the men who had served under him, and the US government granted them all a full pardon on February 6, 1815.<ref name="ramsay82">Ramsay (1996), p. 82.</ref><ref>Ingersoll (1852) pp. 82–83</ref>

However, many of the ships captured by the Americans were recaptured by the Royal Navy. British convoy systems honed during the Napoleonic Wars limited losses to singleton ships, and the effective blockade of American and continental ports prevented captured ships being taken in for sale. This ultimately led to orders forbidding US privateers from attempting to bring their prizes in to port, with captured ships instead having to be burnt. Over 200 American privateer ships were captured by the Royal Navy, many of which were turned on their former owners and used by the British blockading forces. Nonetheless, during the War of 1812 the privateers "swept out from America's coasts, capturing and sinking as many as 2,500 British ships and doing approximately $40 million worth of damage to the British economy."<ref name=":0" />
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