Buccaneers were a kind of privateer or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688, during a time when governments in the Caribbean area were not strong enough to suppress them.
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes and taking crews prisoner for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission.
A letter of marque and reprisal was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. After capturing, the privateers could bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to conduct a reprisal and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.
Saint-Malo is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany.
Robert Surcouf was a French privateer, businessman and slave trader who operated in the Indian Ocean from 1789 to 1808 during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Capturing over 40 prizes, he later amassed a large fortune from a variety of commercial activities, such as ship-owning, privateering, slave trading and owning land.
René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, also known as René Duguay-Trouin, was a French naval officer, nobleman, slave trader, and privateer best known for his career during the War of the Spanish Succession. He had a brilliant privateering and naval career and eventually became "Lieutenant-General of the Naval Armies of the King", and a Commander in the Order of Saint-Louis. Ten ships of the French Navy have since been named in his honour.
Revenant was a 20-gun privateer corvette, launched in 1807, and designed by Robert Surcouf for commerce raiding. The French Navy later requisitioned her and renamed her Iéna, after Napoleon's then-recent victory at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt. The British captured her in 1808 and she served in the Royal Navy as HMS Victor. The French Navy recaptured her in 1809, taking her back into service under the new name. The British again captured her when they took Isle de France in December 1810. They did not restore her to service, and she was subsequently broken up.
The action of 5 May 1794 was a minor naval engagement fought in the Indian Ocean during the French Revolutionary Wars. A British squadron had been blockading the French island of Isle de France since early in the year, and early on 5 May discovered two ships approaching their position. As the strange vessels came closer, they were recognised as the French frigate Duguay Trouin, which had been captured from the East India Company the year before, and a small brig. Making use of a favourable wind, the British squadron gave chase to the new arrivals, which fled. The chase was short, as Duguay Trouin was a poor sailor with many of the crew sick and unable to report for duty. The British frigate HMS Orpheus was the first to arrive, and soon completely disabled the French frigate, successfully raking the wallowing ship. After an hour and twenty minutes the French captain surrendered, Captain Henry Newcome of Orpheus taking over the captured ship and bringing his prize back to port in India.
Nicolas Surcouf was a French privateer. He was the brother and lieutenant of one of France's most famous and successful privateers, Robert Surcouf. Nicholas was the second eldest of four brothers, and Robert the second youngest.
Joseph Potier was a French privateer and slave trader. He was one of the lieutenants of Robert Surcouf.
Charles-Marie Cunat was a French naval officer, privateer and naval historian.
Princess Royal, launched in 1786, was an East Indiaman. She made two complete trips to India for the British East India Company (EIC) and was on her third trip, this one to China, when French privateers or warships captured her on 27 September 1793. The French Navy took her into service in the Indian Ocean as a 34-gun frigate under the name Duguay Trouin. The Royal Navy recaptured her and she returned to British merchant service. In 1797 she performed one more voyage for the EIC. She received a letter of marque in July 1798 but was captured in October 1799 off the coast of Sumatra.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many French privateers and letters of marque bore the name Duguay-Trouin, named for René Duguay-Trouin: René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, French privateer, admiral and Commander in the Order of Saint Louis. Between 1760 and 1810, warships of the Royal Navy captured seven different French privateers all with the name Duguay-Trouin.
Émilie a French corvette-built privateer based in Île de France. She is mostly known as one of the ships captained by Robert Surcouf.
Caroline was a French privateer commissioned in Saint-Malo in 1804. She served in the Indian Ocean, based at Île de France. As she was returning to Saint-Malo, a sloop of the British Royal Navy captured her off Cape Finisterre in 1809; she was accidentally sunk shortly thereafter.
Surcouf is a French opéra comique in three acts and a prologue, music by Robert Planquette, libretto by Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru, premiered on 6 October 1887 at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques in Paris. It ran for a modestly successful 96 performances.
HMS Duguay-Trouin was an 18-gun French privateer sloop launched in 1779 at Le Havre. Surprise captured her in 1780 and the British Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. It sold Duguay-Trouin on 30 October 1783. She then became the West Indiaman Christopher. She captured several French merchant vessels. Later she became a Liverpool-based slave ship, making five voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She was lost at Charleston in September 1804 in a hurricane.
Baron de Binder was launched in 1782. She made two voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Then in 1793, she became the privateer Duguay-Trouin. After one cruise, the French Navy requisitioned her, and she served as a corvette for almost three years. The navy returned her to her owners, who sailed her as a privateer again. In 1798. the British Royal Navy captured her.
Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy was a Royal Navy officer of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Having joined the navy sometime before 1688, Hardy's career was supported by Captain George Churchill, whom he served as first lieutenant during the Battle of Barfleur in 1692. Promoted to captain in 1693, Hardy served in the Channel Islands and off the coast of England until 1702 when he was given command of HMS Pembroke off the coast of Spain. He fought at the Battle of Cádiz, and subsequently discovered the location of the Franco-Spanish fleet through the intervention of his chaplain, which resulted in the Battle of Vigo Bay. Hardy was knighted for his services.
