What were privateers?
Privateering was once considered a covert activity. Before the development of a legal system in the European countries, it was used as a method of redressing minor grievances that the government of one country had against that of another, in the absence of any legal recourse. In the earlier years, privateers were quite different from pirates, but the distinction had begun to fade out significantly when every country, except the one whose government had commissioned the privateers (thus enabling them to enjoy the benefit of immunity from that country’s government) began to consider them as outlaws, as they did pirates. Privateering was a method used by two countries to sort out their internal disputes without openly resorting to warfare. In piracy terminology, a privateer was a private ship or its captain authorised by the government of a country to attack and seize cargo from the ships of other countries. Privateers, if caught, were taken to be prisoners of war by the government of the
