A rare broadside issued by the British government during the War of 1812, revising the rules regarding the distribution of prize money for naval crews and privateers upon their capture of enemy vessels.
At the outset of the War of 1812, both England and the United States actively sought assistance from privateers. The Royal Navy was pre-occupied with defending Britain and its Caribbean colonies from French incursions, and so had relatively few warships available to protect British North American shipping. Meanwhile, the United States Navy, then barely a decade old, comprised only a handful of frigates and smaller warships.
Before long, hundreds of privateer ships from both nations were prowling the seas. Indeed, the operations of American privateers ultimately proved a more significant threat to British trade than the United States Navy itself. Operating throughout the Atlantic until the close of the war, most notably from Baltimore, the American privateers took approximately 1,300 British merchant vessels during the conflict. The British tried to limit these privateering losses by the strict enforcement of convoy by the Royal Navy, as well as through the direct capture of American privateers, ultimately taking 278 ships.
Issued on 26th October 1812, four months after the beginning of the war, this broadside outlines in detail the British government’s revisions to the rules regarding the allocation of prize money from captured ships, both for naval vessels and would-be privateers:
“We have ordered that General Repizals be granted against the Ships, Goods, and Citizens of the United States of America … so that as well the Fleets and Ships of His Majesty as also all other Ships and Vessels that shall be commissioned by Letters of Marque or General Reprizals, or otherwise by the Commissioner for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain, shall and may lawfully seize all Ships, Vessels, and Goods belonging to the Government of the United States of America, or to any Persons being Citizens of the United States of America … We being desirous to give due Encouragement to His Majesty’s faithful Subjects who shall lawfully seize the same … do now make known to all His Majesty’s loving Subjects, and all others whom it may concern, that Our Will and Pleasure is, in the Name and on Behalf of His Majesty, That the neat Produce of such Prizes taken … be given to the Takers … (that is to say, That all Prizes taken by Ships and Vessels having Commissions of Letters of Marque and Repizals, may be sold and disposed of by the Merchants, Owners, Fitters, and others, to whom such Letters of Marque and Reprizals are granted, for their own Use and Benefit… And We do hereby further order and direct, that the net Produce of all Prizes which are or shall be taken by any of His Majesty’s Ships or Vessels of War shall be for the entire Benefit and Encouragement of the Flag-Officers, Captains, Commanders, and other Commissioned Officers in His Majesty’s Pay, and of the Seamen, Marines, and Soldiers on board His Majesty’s said Ships and Vessels at the Time of the Capture; and that such Prizes may be lawfully sold and disposed of by them and their Agents.”
This is followed by a lengthy and detailed explanation as to how prizes should be divided between various types of naval and privateer crew. For example, admirals and captains would jointly received a quarter of the prize money, with a third of this going to the admiral, a reduction from their previous entitlement. In an attempt to reduce the likelihood of subsequent disputes, it also addresses scenarios such as the capture of an enemy vessel by one British ship, but within sight of another, both having been involved in the chase, declaring that the latter should also share in the “Prizes and Booty taken” if they have added “to the Encouragement of the Captors, and Terror of the Enemy.”
The notation to the reverse of the present copy (“Albacore”), suggests it was aboard the sloop HMS Albacore. Launched in Bristol in 1804, the Albacore began her career under the command of Major Jacob Henniker, intercepting French and other vessels along the Normandy coast, and successfully capturing a number of ships, sometimes in tandem with privateer crews. In August 1811, Commander Thomas Henry Davies was appointed to command Albacore, subsequently sailing to West Africa and South America. Actively engaged in the War of 1812, by 1814, and now under the command of James Boxer, the Albacore attacked American shipping, recapturing the US ship Woodbridge in May and chasing the American privateer True Blooded Yankee into Salvador.
While being a central feature of the conflict, the War of 1812 was also the last conflict in which the British government allowed privateering. Although it preserved the state’s coffers while harassing and weakening the enemy, it came to be seen as politically inexpedient and of diminishing value in maintaining the nation’s naval supremacy.
Not in OCLC or Libraryhub.
