![]() ![]() So successful were they, that from July 1812 to February 1815, privateers from the United States, Britain, and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (as well as those sailing under French and Spanish flags) turned the shipping lanes from Newfoundland to the West Indies, Norway to West Africa, and even the South Pacific into their hunting grounds. 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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