" ...[This calls for] a Global concerted effort led by US, Europe, the UK and Russia on all sources of terror; the same kind of struggle as our Forefathers had against Piracy on the High-Seas"
- Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak,
11am EST, Sept. 11 2001
Amy - A pirate?
Will Bailey - A pirate, a pirate, O yes, a pirate, he.
C.J. Cregg - A privateer, actually.
Amy - Isn't that just a hired pirate?
Will Bailey - Yeah.
privateer
Line breaks: pri¦vat|eer
Pronunciation: /ˌprʌɪvəˈtɪə /
Definition of privateer in English:
NOUN
1 historical An armed ship owned and crewed by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war, especially in the capture of merchant shipping:
she was captured by a French 44-gun privateer
1.1 A commander or crew member of a privateer, often regarded as a pirate:
Francis Drake disliked other privateers poaching prizes he regarded as his own
2 An advocate or exponent of private enterprise:
it may be instructive to compare the supposedly wasteful public sector with the supposedly lean privateers
3 Motor Racing A competitor who races as a private individual rather than as a member of a team:
he finished top privateer in the world championships
Origin
mid 17th century: from private, on the pattern of volunteer.
Derivatives
privateering
1. NOUN
"Parts of the West-Indies. Rhode-Island, July 26. This Day, 26 of the Pirates taken by his Majesty Ship the Greyhound, Captain Solgard, were executed here. Some of them delivered what they had to say in writing, and most of them said something at the Place of Execution, advising all People, young ones especially, to take warning by their unhappy Fate, and to avoid the crimes that brought them to it. Their black Flag, under which they had committed abundance of Pyracies and Murders, was affix'd to one Corner of the Gallows.
It had in it the Portraiture of Death, with an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, striking into a Heart, and three Drops of Blood delineated as falling from it.
This Flag they called Old Roger, and us'd to say, They would live and die under it."
Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer (London, Saturday, October 19, 1723; Issue LVII, page 2, col. 1):
The personnel of the British submarine HMS Utmost showing off their Jolly Roger in February 1942. The markings on the flag indicate the boat's achievements: nine ships torpedoed (including one warship), eight 'cloak and dagger' operations, one target destroyed by gunfire, and one at-sea rescue
"An angry pirate therefore posed a greater danger to merchant ships than an angry Spanish coast guard or privateer vessel. Because of this, although, like pirate ships, Spanish coast guard vessels and privateers were almost always stronger than the merchant ships they attacked, merchant ships may have been more willing to attempt resisting these "legitimate" attackers than their piratical counterparts. To achieve their goal of taking prizes without a costly fight, it was therefore important for pirates to distinguish themselves from these other ships also taking prizes on the seas."
p. 10, "Pirational Choice: The Economics of Infamous Pirate Practices", Peter T. Leeson.
"Though England considers him a hero, Spaniards regard Drake as a cruel and bloodthirsty pirate who used to sack defenseless Spanish harbors. Drake, or Draco ("Dragon"), to give his Spanish name, was used as a bogeyman for centuries after his vicious raids."
Drake receiving the Crown from the Hioh, or King of New Albion.” From David Henry’s An Historical Account of All the Voyages Round the World, Performed by English Navigators . . .(London, 1774), vol. 1. [Cotsen Collection]
. . . [T]he King, with the concurrence of the rest, placed the Crown upon Drake’s head, graced him with the chains and other signs of authority, and saluted him with the title of Hioh. The kingdom thus offered, though of no farther value to him than that it furnished him with present necessities, Drake thought it not prudent for him to refuse; and, therefore, took possession of it in the name of Queen Elizabeth, not without ardent wishes that this acquisition might be of use to his native country. [p. 123]
Note the incongruous palm tree in the background.
An aerial view of Whale Cove, Oregon (44°44' N), contrasted with the “Portus Novæ Albionis” inset of Jodocus Hondius’s world map, ca. 1595. [Both images from Wikipedia]
Some scholars theorize that this is the harbor described by Drake where the Golden Hind was anchored and repaired (June 17–July 23, 1579) in what he called “New Albion.” The theory was proposed by Robert Ward in 1981 ("Drake and the Oregon Coast," The Geographical Magazine). Though Drake gives its latitude as 38°30′ N, Samuel Bawlf argues (The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 2003, which borrows heavily from Ward's earlier research) that all of Drake’s northern coordinates were deliberately reduced by ten degrees to mislead the Spanish about the true northern extent of his travels. In addition, the cove matches the visual representation on Jodocus Hondius’s world map “Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticæ . . .” (ca. 1595) of the inset of “Portus Novæ Albionis,” for which Drake had supplied the drawing; Bawlf suggests that no other cove along the California/Oregon coast has these same characteristics. (A portion of the peninsula is submerged at high tide, creating the additional “island.”) More recently, Garry Gitzen (Sir Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, 2008) has posited Nehalem Bay, Oregon, as the true New Albion, using multifaceted approaches (such as topography, ethnology, flora/fauna, geography). In either view, Oregon seemed a more likely location for Drake's careening respite—not California. However, in 2012, after years of conducting its own review of the research, the Department of the Interior designated Drake's Cove in Drake's Bay, California, as a National Historic Landmark: the official site of Drake's landing.
At this anchorage, Drake summarized his thoughts about the possibility of a Northwest Passage:
. . . [W]e conjecture that either there is no passage at all through these Northerne coasts (which is most likely) or if there be, that yet it is unnavigable. Adde hereunto, that though we searched the coast diligently, even unto the 48. deg. yet found we not the land, to trend so much as one point in any place towards the East, but rather running on continually Northwest, as if it went directly to meet with Asia; and even in that height when we had a franke wind, to have carried us through, had there beene a passage, yet we had a smooth and calme sea, with ordinary flowing and reflowing, which could not have beene, had there beene a strete: of which we rather infallibly concluded then conjectured, that there was none. [The World Encompassed . . . , p. 67]
Two hundred years later, exploring the Northwest coast of North America, Captain James Cook would reach the same conclusion.
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