Issuing Letters of Marque is an enumerated power of Congress in the US Constitution. Can anyone explain how this worked in practice in the time period around the quasi-war with France or the War of 1812?
If I were a trader in Savannah or Charleston ca. 1813, would I buy/upgrade cannons for my sloop, recruit a crew, write a letter to my Congressman, and then set sail for the Caribbean to harass British shipping? Would a private individual have issues accumulating weapons (and from where?) or sailing a warship in-and-out of US ports? Was it viewed as a patriotic endeavor?
Or were privateers more likely to be opportunistic stateless individuals who already possessed all of the above and acquired a Letter of Marque out of convenience?
In the War of 1812, the US issued letters of marque to 517 privateers. These privateers mounted 2,893 cannon, captured 1300 British ships. Took almost 30,000 British prisoners.
http://www.usmm.org/warof1812.html
The profits from Privateering were estimated at $28.5m, compared to lost profits from merchant shipping (due to the British blockade) of $17.5m
http://www.lhaasdav.com/learningcenter/privateers.html
Some letters of marque were acquired (especially early in the war) by ships making a normal, cargo carrying, merchant voyage, which wanted to be able to seize an opportunity to capture a British ship if one arose. Most, however, were obtained for private warships, which set out expressly to prey on British merchant shipping.
The privateer would buy cannon where ever they could (or commission them to be cast). Sometimes they couldn’t get enough cannon quickly (particularly early in the war – later on, British prizes provided a good source of cannon). The Paul Jones, for example, sailed from New York in 1812 with 120 men but only 3 guns (though she had 17 gunports). She attacked the British merchant ship Hassan with 14 guns and 20 crew, and was able to mount the Hassan’s guns and sail on fully armed.
Some American privateers were incredibly successful. Rattlesnake took 18 prizes in the Baltic, worth more than $1m. Scourge captured 27 ships in the Baltic and North Atlantic. Lion earned $400,000 from auctioning off prizes captured in the Bay of Biscay. Comet captured treasure ships in the South Atlantic and took home $1.5m in cash. Jacob Jones took an Indiaman in the Indian Ocean with 20,000 pounds sterling worth of gold dust and opium on board.
Not only did the British lose ships and cargos and seamen, the cost of trade also went up as insurance rates soared, and the Royal Navy had to devote many of its resources to convoy duty and relatively ineffective commerce protection.
The efforts of the privateers were perhaps the only real effort by the Americans which damaged the British during the War of 1812.