![]() ![]() In the early days of the war, enthusiasm for The Confederacy was high, and many ship owners responded to the appeal by applying for letters of marque. ![]() Privateers were also authorized to attack an enemy's navy warships and then apply to the sponsoring government for direct monetary reward, usually gold or gold specie (coins). ![]() The proceeds would be distributed among owners and crew according to a contractual arrangement. If the court found that the capture was legal, the ship and cargo would be forfeited and sold at a prize auction. Prizes would be taken to the jurisdiction of a competent court, which could be in the sponsoring country or theoretically in any neutral port. The captured vessels and cargo fell under customary prize rules at sea. Privateering was the practice of fitting ordinary private merchant vessels with modest armament, then sending them to sea to capture other merchant vessels in return for monetary reward. Although the appeal was to profit by capturing merchant vessels and seizing their cargoes, the government was most interested in diverting the efforts of the Union Navy away from the blockade of Southern ports, and perhaps to encourage European intervention in the conflict.Īt the beginning of the American Civil War, the Confederate government sought to counter the United States Navy in part by appealing to private enterprise worldwide to engage in privateering against United States shipping. The Confederate privateers were privately owned ships that were authorized by the government of the Confederate States of America to attack the shipping of the United States. ![]() Ship authorized to attack by the Confederate States of America ![]()
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