privateer

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The HMS Kent and the privateer Confiance of Robert Surcouf in action
In his Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768), Fredrik Henrik af Chapman showed pirate vehicles of various sizes on ten panels. Shown here are two schooners 96 and 72 feet in length and a yacht 64 feet in length.

As a privateer or short Kaper ( Engl. Privateer ) is called ships of the privateering served.

The vehicles used were mainly smaller types. In addition to regional types, ships equipped with corvettes or frigates were also used . Since Kaperer worked as a private war company with a state concession, the use of people and material was adapted to the expected use. Therefore rowing vehicles with only hand weapons and surprise attacks, but also frigates with strong artillery armament, could be used. Targets could be enemy warships, enemy merchant ships, neutral merchant ships that traded with the enemy, merchant ships that had contraband on board, and your own merchant ships that were under prohibition.

Individual privateers have become famous through adventure films and novels. B. the Golden Hinde and the Revenge under the command of Francis Drake (late 16th century) or the Confiance by Robert Surcouf from the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

With the Declaration of the Law of the Sea of ​​Paris of 1856 , private privateer shipping was banned and equated with piracy. The blockade breakers of the Confederate States Navy of the American Civil War , like the Alabama , were privateers. They operated after the Paris Declaration, but under the umbrella of a certain benevolence from Great Britain and France, the two largest sea powers of the time.

Web links

Wiktionary: Kaperschiff  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

  • Andreas Kammler: Up Eventur. Investigations on privateer shipping from 1471 to 1512, mainly based on Hamburg and Lübeck sources. Scripta-Mercaturae-Verlag, St. Katharinen 2005, ISBN 3-89590-156-3 , ( Material tradition and history 37), (At the same time: Siegen, Univ., Diss., 2004).
  • J. Th. H. Verhees-van Meer: De Zeeuwse kaapvaart tijdens de Spaanse successieoorlog 1702-1713 (works uitgegeven door het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der wetenschappen) Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der wetenschappen- 10 , Middelburg 1986.- 90-70534-10 , Middelburg 1986.- 90-70534-10 .
  • Martin Gebauer, Egon Krenz: Maritime Dictionary. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1989. ISBN 3-327-00679-2 .
  • Alfred Dudszus, Ernest Henriot, Friedrich Krumrey: The great book of ship types. 2nd Edition. Transpress Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1987. ISBN 3-344-00161-2 .