Privateering

144 Atlantic Ave

The thumbnail image is part of a painting called “The British Fleet forming a Line off Algiers” currently on view at the MFA. While this painting was from 1816 it highlights the size and experience of some of these British ships – which are a vast difference to the privateering vessels that fought them.

The Massachusetts Committee of Safety quickly recognized that in order to drive the British army from the town, it had to starve them out. The British military had a longstanding practice of acquiring fresh provisions from local farmers. At first, Gen. Thomas Gage contemplated purchasing supplies from American farmers who lived on the islands in Boston Harbor. Unfortunately, many yeomen were reluctant to cooperate.[2] As a result, the general decided he would initiate military operations to forcefully seize necessary resources. Of course, the harbor islands only provided a limited amount of supplies. As a result, Gage was forced to rely heavily upon the long and tenuous communication lines to British possessions in Nova Scotia and the West Indies, and ultimately, back to England.

Massachusetts had a long history of privateering during the previous French wars and almost immediately turned to the practice as a method to drive His Majesty’s troops out of the town. Privateering, or “lawful piracy,” was the act of seizing enemy supply or military vessels by civilian-owned warships. Privateers operated under the authority of “Letters of Marque” issued from governmental authorities and were often, if not solely, motivated by the opportunity for profit. Massachusetts authorities actively encouraged just about any person with a seaworthy vessel to partake in privateer operations and placed no limits on the number of ships receiving Letters of Marque.

All classes of vessels were engaged in privateering, ships, brigs, schooners, sloops, and even whaleboats in Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds. A privateer, strictly speaking, was a private armed vessel carrying no cargo and devoted exclusively to warlike use and authorized to take prizes. The Continental Navy was too weak to fight the British navy with any hope of a fair share of success and was limited in its operations or commerce-destroying. The entire net proceeds from the sale of prizes and captured goods went to the owners and captors. The number of American privateers in commission during the war was large, certainly exceeding two thousand different vessels. Massachusetts contributed a larger number than any other state.

Within a very short time, Gage’s Atlantic supply lines fell prey to the privateer fleets of Newburyport, Salem, Beverly, and Plymouth. According to reports from the Essex Gazette, Massachusetts privateers were far more successful in cutting off British supplies than their land-based counterparts. As early as September 9, 1775, the newspaper reported that “Last Saturday a privateer belonging to Newburyport carried into Portsmouth a schooner of forty-five tons, loaded with potatoes and turnips intended for the enemy in Boston.”

Many of these privateers traveled in groups that varied in size from a few ships to over twenty. One such squadron from Newburyport consisted of twenty-five vessels and over 2,800 men. A second from the same town boasted thirty vessels. Towards the close of 1775, Massachusetts privateers were not only preventing much-needed supplies from reaching Boston but were also seizing enemy vessels in rapid succession.

-Source Links-

For an idea of what the British Navy was like – this is the huge mural at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts of the British Fleet off Algiers https://collections.mfa.org/objects/32602/the-british-fleet-forming-a-line-off-algiers;jsessionid=FDBEC1B24E39386E2A5E9FC052F5D8F3

https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/09/massachusetts-privateers-during-the-siege-of-boston/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/privateers-in-the-american-revolution.htm

https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/video/the-untold-war-at-sea-americas-revolutionary-privateers/

http://www.ppreservationist.com/privateers.htm

https://www.massar.org/2011/06/23/privateers-of-the-revolution/

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012083690&seq=32 pg 13-18; scroll down for giant list of bonded boats with details like guns, captain, and quantity of sailors.