![]() ![]() ![]() Unlike the navy, privateers were essentially volunteer commerce raiders, determined to weaken the enemy economically rather than militarily. The entire process was legal, licensed and often extremely lucrative. Local citizens provided the ships, crews and prizes while the court and customs systems took in the appropriate fees. By 1812, privateering was acknowledged as an ideal way to annoy the enemy at little or no cost to the government. During the War of 1812, hundreds of private armed vessels, or privateers, carrying letters of marque and reprisal from their respective governments, served as counterweights to the navies of Great Britain and the United States. ![]()
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