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.
The Spanish Navy or officially, the Armada, is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation, the most famous being the discovery of America and the first global circumnavigation. For several centuries, it played a crucial logistical role in the expansion and consolidation of the Spanish Empire, and defended a vast trade network across the Atlantic Ocean between the Americas and Europe, and the Manila Galleon across the Pacific Ocean between the Philippines and the Americas.
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal and first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-17th century. Galleons generally carried three or more masts with a lateen fore-and-aft rig on the rear masts, were carvel built with a prominent squared off raised stern, and used square-rigged sail plans on their fore-mast and main-masts.
Port Royal is a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and commerce in the Caribbean Sea by the latter half of the 17th century. It was destroyed by an earthquake on 7 June 1692 and its accompanying tsunami, leading to the establishment of Kingston, the capital and the most populated and prosperous city in Jamaica. Severe hurricanes have regularly damaged the area. Another severe earthquake occurred in 1907.
The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation for the period between the 1650s and the 1730s, when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
Laurens Cornelis Boudewijn de Graaf was a Dutch pirate, mercenary, and naval officer in the service of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the late 17th and early 18th century.
The Battle of Cape Celidonia took place on 14 July 1616 during the Ottoman–Habsburg struggle for the control of the Mediterranean. During its course, a small Spanish fleet owned by Viceroy of Naples Pedro Téllez-Girón, Duke of Osuna, under the command of Francisco de Rivera, was attacked by an Ottoman fleet that vastly outnumbered it while cruising off Cyprus. Despite this, the Spanish ships, mostly galleons, managed to repel the Ottomans, whose fleet consisted mainly of galleys, inflicting heavy losses.
The Armada de Barlovento was a military formation that consisted of 50 ships created by the Spanish Empire to protect its overseas American territories from attacks from its European enemies, as well as attacks from pirates and privateers.
Benerson Little is an American author, primarily of non-fiction, focusing on naval history, in particular, piracy and privateering in the 17th to early 18th centuries, including the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean. Little has also established himself as an expert, more broadly, on these and other various types of "sea rovers" over history, including through to the present, and has authored several books related to these subjects. He has also applied his expertise to a variety of artistic and commercial productions, including for the Black Sails (2014-2017) television series, and for the modern board game Blood & Plunder, serving as an historical consultant for both.
Richard Noland was an Irish pirate active in the Caribbean. He was best known for sailing with Samuel Bellamy before working for the Spanish as a privateer.
Simon Mascarino was a Portuguese pirate active in the Caribbean. He was also a privateer in service of the Spanish.
Thomas Henley was a pirate and privateer active in the Red Sea and the Caribbean.
John Philip Bear, last name also spelled Beare, was a 17th-century English pirate active in the Caribbean who also served with the Spanish and French.
Philip Fitzgerald was an Irish pirate and privateer who served the Spanish in the Caribbean.
George Bond was an English pirate active in the Caribbean. He was known for acting in league with the pirate-friendly Governor of St. Thomas, Adolph Esmit.
Don Benito was a Spanish pirate and guarda costa privateer active in the Caribbean.
Turn Joe was an Irish pirate and privateer who left English service and sailed for Spain instead as a guarda costa privateer in the Caribbean.
Juan Corso was a Corsican pirate and guarda costa privateer who sailed in Spanish service, operating out of Cuba.
The Royal Arsenal of Havana was located South East of the Campo de Marte and played a prominent role in Spanish shipbuilding in the 18th century. In total, seventy-four warships were built in Havana during this century.
The raid on La Goulette of 1617 was a naval attack by Sicilian-Spanish captain Ottavio d'Aragona on La Goulette, the port of Ottoman Tunisia, where he destroyed the fleet in port in response to acts of local Barbary pirates.
