Editing Privateer (section)

=== Bermudians ===
The English colony of [[Bermuda]] (or the ''Somers Isles''), settled accidentally in 1609, was used as a base for English privateers from the time it officially became part of the territory of the [[London Company|Virginia Company]] in 1612, especially by ships belonging to [[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick|Robert Rich]], the [[Earl of Warwick]], for whom Bermuda's [[Warwick Parish, Bermuda|Warwick Parish]] is named (the Warwick name had long been associated with commerce raiding, as exampled by the [[Newport Ship]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newportpast.com/early/port/ship.htm |title=The Newport Ship |website=Newport Past |access-date=25 October 2022}}</ref> thought to have been taken from the Spanish by [[Warwick the Kingmaker]] in the 15th century).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://core.tdar.org/document/436943/the-wreck-of-the-warwick-bermuda-1619 |title=The Wreck of the Warwick, Bermuda 1619 |last=Bojakowski |first=Katie |date=2014 |website=tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record) |publisher=Center for Digital Antiquity, a collaborative organization and university Center at Arizona State University |access-date=2022-05-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://warwick1619.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/1619-unrecoverably-lost-in-castle-harbour/comment-page-1 |title=1619: Unrecoverably lost in Castle Harbour |last=Inglis |first=Doug |date=2012-06-05 |website=Warwick, 1619: Shipwreck Excavation |publisher=The Warwick Excavation is a National Museum of Bermuda (NMB) project in partnership with Texas A&M and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), in association with The Global Exploration and Oceanographic Society (G-EOS) and Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. |access-date=2022-05-30}}</ref> Many Bermudians were employed as crew aboard privateers throughout the century, although the colony was primarily devoted to farming cash crops until turning from its failed agricultural economy to the sea after the 1684 dissolution of the [[Somers Isles Company]] (a spin-off of the Virginia Company, which had overseen the colony since 1615). With a total area of {{convert|21|sqmi|km2|order=flip}} and lacking any natural resources other than the [[Bermuda cedar]], the colonists applied themselves fully to the maritime trades, developing the speedy [[Bermuda sloop]], which was well suited both to commerce and to commerce raiding. Bermudian merchant vessels turned to privateering at every opportunity in the 18th century, preying on the shipping of Spain, France, and other nations during a series of wars, including the 1688 to 1697 [[Nine Years' War]] ([[King William's War]]); the 1702 to 1713 [[Queen Anne's War]];<ref>[http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/bitstream/handle/10342/1112/Southerly_James.pdf "Cedar on the Reef", ScholarShip. East Carolina University (PDF)]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/listing.aspx?id=6156|title=Cedar on the reef: archaeological and historical assessments of the Eighteenth-Century Bermuda Sloop, exemplified by the wreck of the Hunter Galley|first=James Christopher Welliver|last=Southerly|website=libres.uncg.edu|access-date=6 February 2019}}</ref> the 1739 to 1748 [[War of Jenkins' Ear]]; the 1740 to 1748 [[War of the Austrian Succession]] ([[King George's War]]); the 1754 to 1763 [[Seven Years' War]] (known in the United States as the [[French and Indian War]]), this conflict was devastating for the colony's merchant fleet. Fifteen privateers operated from Bermuda during the war, but losses exceeded captures; the 1775 to 1783 [[American War of Independence]]; and the 1796 to 1808 [[Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808)|Anglo-Spanish War]].<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |title=In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680–1783 |first=Michael |last=Jarvis |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |date=2010}}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Bermuda's Sailors of Fortune" |first=Sister Jean de Chantal |last=Kennedy |publisher=Bermuda Historical Society |date=1963 |asin=B0007J8WMW}}</ref> By the middle of the 18th century, Bermuda was sending twice as many privateers to sea as any of the continental colonies. They typically left Bermuda with very large crews. This advantage in manpower was vital in overpowering the crews of larger vessels, which themselves often lacked sufficient crewmembers to put up a strong defence. The extra crewmen were also useful as [[prize crew]]s for returning captured vessels.

The Bahamas, which had been depopulated of its indigenous inhabitants by the Spanish, had been settled by England, beginning with the [[Eleutheran Adventurers]], dissident [[Puritans]] driven out of Bermuda during the [[English Civil War]]. Spanish and French attacks destroyed [[New Providence]] in 1703, creating a [[Republic of Pirates|stronghold for pirates]], and it became a thorn in the side of British merchant trade through the area. In 1718, Britain appointed [[Woodes Rogers]] as [[Governor of the Bahamas]], and sent him at the head of a force to reclaim the settlement. Before his arrival, however, the pirates had been forced to surrender by a force of Bermudian privateers who had been issued letters of marque by the [[Governor of Bermuda]].

[[File:Bermuda Gazette - 12 November 1796.jpg|thumb|upright|Bermuda Gazette of 12 November 1796, calling for privateering against Spain and its allies during the 1796 to 1808 [[Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808)|Anglo-Spanish War]], and with advertisements for crew for two privateer vessels.]]

Bermuda was in de facto control of the [[Turks Islands]], with their lucrative salt industry, from the late 17th century to the early 19th. The Bahamas made perpetual attempts to claim the Turks for itself. On several occasions, this involved seizing the vessels of Bermudian salt traders. A virtual state of war was said to exist between Bermudian and Bahamian vessels for much of the 18th century. When the Bermudian sloop ''Seaflower'' was seized by the Bahamians in 1701, the response of the Governor of Bermuda, Captain [[Benjamin Bennett (governor)|Benjamin Bennett]], was to issue letters of marque to Bermudian vessels. In 1706, Spanish and French forces ousted the Bermudians but were driven out themselves three years later by the Bermudian privateer Captain [[Lewis Middleton]]. His ship, the ''Rose'', attacked a Spanish and a French privateer holding a captive English vessel. Defeating the two enemy vessels, the ''Rose'' then cleared out the thirty-man garrison left by the Spanish and French.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Maritimes: The Magazine of the Bermuda Maritime Museum |date=2002 |volume=15 |number=2 |title=Foreign Interlopers at Bermuda's Turks Islands |first=Bill |last=Cooke}}</ref>

Despite strong sentiments in support of the rebels, especially in the early stages, Bermudian privateers turned as aggressively on American shipping during the [[American War of Independence]]. The importance of privateering to the Bermudian economy had been increased not only by the loss of most of Bermuda's continental trade but also by the [[Hugh Palliser#Governor of Newfoundland|Palliser Act]], which forbade Bermudian vessels from fishing the [[Grand Banks]]. Bermudian trade with the rebellious American colonies actually carried on throughout the war. Some historians credit the large number of Bermuda sloops (reckoned at over a thousand) built-in Bermuda as privateers and sold illegally to the Americans as enabling the rebellious colonies to win their independence.<ref>{{Cite magazine |magazine=The Bermudian |title=Bermuda in the Privateering Business |first=Lieutenant-Colonel A. Gavin |last=Shorto |date=2018-04-05 |access-date=2023-11-26 |url=https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/bermuda-in-the-privateering-business |location=City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda |publisher=The Bermudian |archive-date=2023-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231217122822/https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/bermuda-in-the-privateering-business/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Also, the Americans were dependent on Turks salt, and one hundred barrels of gunpowder were stolen from a Bermudian magazine and supplied to the rebels as orchestrated by Colonel [[Henry Tucker (of The Grove)|Henry Tucker]] and [[Benjamin Franklin]], and as requested by [[George Washington]], in exchange for which the [[Continental Congress]] authorised the sale of supplies to Bermuda, which was dependent on American produce. The realities of this interdependence did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm with which Bermudian privateers turned on their erstwhile countrymen.

An American naval captain, ordered to take his ship out of [[Boston Harbor]] to eliminate a pair of Bermudian privateering vessels that had been picking off vessels missed by the Royal Navy, returned frustrated, saying, "the Bermudians sailed their ships two feet for every one of ours".<ref>{{cite book |title=Bermudiana |first=Ronald John |last=Williams |publisher= Rinehart & Company, Inc. |date=1946}}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref> Around 10,000 Bermudians emigrated in the years prior to American independence, mostly to the American colonies. Many Bermudians occupied prominent positions in American seaports, from where they continued their maritime trades (Bermudian merchants controlled much of the trade through ports like [[Charleston, South Carolina]], and Bermudian shipbuilders influenced the development of American vessels, like the [[Baltimore Clipper|Chesapeake Bay schooner]]),<ref name= "ReferenceA"/><ref>[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fassitt/footner.html "Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner", by Geoffrey Footner. Schiffer Publishing. 1998.] {{ISBN|978-0870335112}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Exodus |first=Michael |last=Jarvis |magazine=The Bermudian magazine |date=June 2001}}</ref> and in the Revolution they used their knowledge of Bermudians and of Bermuda, as well as their vessels, for the rebels' cause. In the 1777 Battle of Wreck Hill, brothers Charles and Francis Morgan, members of a large Bermudian enclave that had dominated Charleston, South Carolina and its environs since settlement,<ref name = bermuda>{{cite book |title= Bermuda From Sail To Steam: The History Of The Island From 1784 to 1901 |first=Henry |last=Wilkinson |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Bermuda Forts 1612–1957 |first=Edward C. |last=Harris |year=1997 |publisher=The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |via=The Bermuda Maritime Museum |isbn=0-921560-11-7}}</ref> captaining two sloops (the ''Fair American'' and the ''Experiment'', respectively), carried out the only attack on Bermuda during the war. The target was a fort that guarded a little used passage through the encompassing reef line. After the soldiers manning the fort were forced to abandon it, they spiked its guns and fled themselves before reinforcements could arrive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bernews.com/2012/04/1777-the-battle-of-wreck-hill/|title=1777: The US Navy & The Battle Of Wreck Hill|date=8 April 2012|access-date=6 February 2019}}</ref>
[[File:Bermuda sloop - privateer.jpg|thumb|A [[Bermuda sloop]] engaged as a privateer.]]
When the Americans captured the Bermudian privateer ''Regulator'', they discovered that virtually all of her crew were black slaves. Authorities in Boston offered these men their freedom, but all 70 elected to be treated as [[Prisoner of War|prisoners of war]]. Sent as such to New York on the sloop ''Duxbury'', they seized the vessel and sailed it back to Bermuda.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jefferson.library.millersville.edu/reserve/ANTH458_Trussel_MaritimeMasters.pdf|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120130185639/http://jefferson.library.millersville.edu/reserve/ANTH458_Trussel_MaritimeMasters.pdf|archive-date=30 January 2012|title=''Maritime Masters and Seafaring Slaves in Bermuda, 1680–1783'' |first=Michael J. |last=Jarvis |via=The Jefferson Library|access-date=6 February 2019}}</ref> One-hundred and thirty prizes were brought to Bermuda in the year between 4th day of April 1782 and the 4th day of April 1783 alone, including three by Royal Naval vessels and the remainder by privateers.<ref>{{cite web |author=John Lenis |date=1783-04-04 |title=A list of 130 prizes (ships) captured and brought into the port of Bermuda between 4... |id=CO 37/39/14 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9163914 |website=National Archives of the British Government |access-date=2021-10-03}}</ref>

The War of 1812 saw an encore of Bermudian privateering, which had died out after the 1790s. The decline of Bermudian privateering was due partly to the buildup of the [[Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda|naval base in Bermuda]], which reduced the Admiralty's reliance on privateers in the western Atlantic, and partly to successful American legal suits and claims for damages pressed against British privateers, a large portion of which were aimed squarely at the Bermudians.<ref name = bermuda/> During the course of the War of 1812, Bermudian privateers captured 298 ships, some 19% of the 1,593 vessels captured by British naval and privateering vessels between the Great Lakes and the West Indies.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Andrew and the Onions: The Story Of The Royal Navy In Bermuda, 1795–1975 |first=Ian |last=Strannack |year=1990 |publisher=The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |via=The [[Bermuda Maritime Museum]] |location=Mangrove Bay, Bermuda |isbn=0-921560-03-6}}.</ref>

Among the better known (native-born and immigrant) Bermudian privateers were [[Hezekiah Frith]], Bridger Goodrich,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Prince of Privateers: Bridger Goodrich and His Family in America, Bermuda and Britain: 1775–1825 |first=Nick |last=Hartley |publisher=M.& M. Baldwin |date=2012 |isbn=978-0947712518}}</ref> [[Henry Jennings]], Thomas Hewetson,<ref name = url>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thebermudian.com/past-issues/265 |work=The Bermudian |title=Bermuda in the Privateering Business |first=Gavin |last=Shorto |access-date=2011-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716222600/http://www.thebermudian.com/past-issues/265 |archive-date=2011-07-16 }}</ref> and [[Thomas Tew]].