Penn and Venables and the Puritan conquest, and Morgan and the buccaneers; Port Royal crowded with Spanish prizes; its busy dockyards, and English frigates and privateers fitting out there for glorious or desperate enterprises.
The French privateers seized Tortuga, an island off St. Domingo, and they and their English friends swarmed in the Caribbean Sea as buccaneers or flibustiers.
In 1677 several English privateers surprised and sacked the town of Santa Marta in the Spanish Main.
At Grand Jerre, the privateerspublicly made sale by auction, of the cargoes of their prizes.
The taste for depredation had become so general and contagious, that privateers were now allowed to be fitted out, which equipments quickly degenerated to the most cruel of pirates.
Upwards of two hundred persons lined the shore, and it was a general cry amongst the crews of the privateersat Grand Terre, that those British officers should be made prisoners and sent to New Orleans as spies.
In this lucrative war the French privateers were, towards the close of the summer, very successful.
The English Navy was only employed on abortive commerce-destroying expeditions, and was looked upon with contempt by the bold privateers who harried the Spanish Main.
On the basis that Howard with the Royal Navy was in the Downs, and Drake with a fleet chiefly of privateers in the west, the Armada was tactically organized in three main divisions.
The country was so strong in privateers and merchant craft available for war, and so devoid were her possible antagonists, France and Spain, of true naval power, that little was done.
In this way he hoped, with his powerful force, to be able at once to intercept the privateers at the outset of their Atlantic voyage, and establish a solid check upon England.
All England’s privateersand cruisers failed to take a single Spanish treasure fleet.
Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbers of goats, and their accounts are not to be questioned, this place being the usual haunt of the buccaneers and privateers who formerly frequented those seas.
Selkirk, who was the last, after a stay of between four and five years, was taken off the place by the Duke and Duchess privateers of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the journal of their voyage.
French privateers harbored there, darted out and captured English ships, and then returned where they were safe from pursuit.
I thoughtprivateers always sent their prizes into port, to be condemned?
Furthermore, Confederate privateers were already out, and before the first expedition sailed sixteen captured merchantmen had been taken into the ports of North Carolina.
The Confederate Government had issued letters of marque for privateers almost from the first; and its Congress had authorized the raising of an army of one hundred thousand volunteers for one year.
Let her become involved in war with the United States, and not only a hundred war-ships but a vast fleet of privateers would at once set sail from American ports, and in a few months her commerce would be swept from every sea.
Ralph had no doubt that they were now close to the spot the privateers used as their rendezvous, but he could detect no opening into the cliff ahead, and it looked as if the schooner was leading the way to destruction.
Two of the privateers had evidently made their escape, and the third seemed to be leaving her pursuer behind, for the wind was exceedingly light.
Our cruisers are too sharp for them; though they say a good many privateers run in and out of their ports in spite of all we can do, and a lot of our ships get snapped up.
Your men-of-war ships capture more prisoners than ours, but we make up for it by the numbers our privateers bring in.
The captain of the frigate will be savage that all the privateers have escaped him, but it may put him into a good temper if he takes possession here before the schooner arrives.
They are sure to come back sooner or later, whether they catch any of the privateers or not.
Prom what I gathered from the men, sir, I believe the other two privateers are going straight home.
Beside, if she showed there before the privateers reached the point they might double back again, and the frigate would make the other end of the island before they were halfway back.
He thought over the matter as he ran, and wondered first why the frigate did not take the line to cut the privateers off, instead of going round by the other end of the island.
The intercourse of this port with India, in common with Mozambique, has been much annoyed by the privateers of the Isle of France, and will therefore, in all probability, florish equally by their suppression.
The strait, which separates it from the main land, is an excellent harbour in all its extent, and was the rendezvous of some English privateers during our war with Spain.
The last of the Confederate privateers to ravage the ocean was the "Shenandoah," originally an English merchant-vessel engaged in the East India trade.
Hardly had the ship passed the mouth of the Mersey, when her course was shaped for Nassau, the haven of privateers and blockade-runners.
For us a mere sketch of the exploits of some of the principal privateersmust suffice.
American privateers and cruisers had fairly driven British merchantmen from the seas, and the tars of the "Constitution" found their time hanging heavily on their hands.
The limitations of this work do not permit a complete account of the work of the privateers during the war.
She did good service in keeping off privateers and marauding expeditions from Nova Scotia.
Among the most successful privateers was the "Rossie" of Baltimore, commanded by the Revolutionary veteran Capt.
The "Wasp" remained in port for several weeks, occupying the time in refitting, and filling the gaps in her crew by enlistment from the American privateers which then were to be seen occasionally in every port of the world.
Other privateers were huge three-masters, carrying heavy batteries, and able to outsail any of the enemy's ships.
Some very desperate combats between American privateers and British naval vessels were fought about this time, and will be duly noted in detail in the chapter treating of the exploits of the private armed navy.
Perhaps the foremost of all the fighting privateers was the "Gen.
The larger gunboats carried sail enough to enable them to cruise about the coast, keeping off privateers and checking the marauding expeditions of the British.
There were too many privateers and armed merchantmen always in the river, besides cruisers moving to and fro on commerce-protection duty.
It was against this coastwise traffic that the small, short-range privateers found their opportunity and their richest harvest.
Further, it seems certain that, reckoning at least by numbers, the greater part of the damage was done by small privateers operating close to their bases, either home or colonial, against coastwise and local traffic.
But in any case the Gibraltar area had its own internal flotilla guard under the direction of the port admiral as a defence against local privateers and pirates.
The minor or interior defence against local privateers was to a large extent local; that is, the great part of the flotilla was furnished by sloops built or hired on the spot, as being best adapted for the service.
Like the Western Squadron, it threw out divisions usually located at Yarmouth and Leith for the protection of our coastwise trade from privateers and sporadic cruisers acting from ports within the defended area.
In this region enemies' cruisers and their larger privateers found the mean between risk and profit.
The complaints of merchants, so far as they are known, relate mainly to this kind of work in the West Indies and home waters, while accounts of serious captures by large privateers on the high seas are comparatively rare.
British frigates and gun-boats hooked in his saucyprivateers and Tracy stood quite ruined.
During the Revolution, George, with his brother swept the coast with twenty privateers carrying from sixteen to twenty guns each.
Sidenote: Volunteers] Then there were the privateers who had a colour for their depredations; professedly volunteers on the side of recognised belligerents.
Letters of reprisal for the seizure of the English ships had been promptly issued, and numbers of privateers were quickly in Spanish waters.
He don't know that there's such things as privateers afloat, and he ain't seen nary cruiser to warn him.
I hope there are no more privateers on the coast," said Marcy, as he drew one of the flags from its hiding place.
The captain knew that there were rebel privateers afloat, for in a foreign port he had read of the escape of the Savannah from Charleston on June 2, and of the inglorious ending of her short career as a freebooter.
To the privateers that showed their heels, the larger boats gave chase; and coming up with them one after another, they were finally all captured.
Fast-sailing Baltimore clippers fitted out as privateers infested the whole Brazilian coast, often venturing in sight of Rio and soon sweeping the coasting trade out of existence.
He visited all the captaincies south of Bahia and entered Rio Bay, then the principal rendezvous for the French privateers and traders.
No American navy existed; but the merchants and marines turned their vessels into ships of war, and under the name of privateers swept the seas of British cruisers, capturing in six years over four hundred and fifty prizes.
Wing and Wing is a tale of the Mediterranean during the exciting days of privateers and pirates in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
It was fully believed also that the privateers which swarmed out of our docks were the cause of this exhibition of ill-feeling towards us.
It may be fairly stated that the enormous sums obtained by captures from the enemy by Liverpool privateers proved the main foundation-stone of the present great prosperity of the port.
This gave the Spanish colonies a welcome respite from the ravages of privateers till 1621, the first year of the reign of King Philip IV, when hostilities immediately recommenced.
In August, 1803, British privateers boarded and captured a French frigate in the port of Salinas in this island.
Even the negroes of Haiti armed seven privateers under British auspices and preyed upon the French and Spanish merchant ships in these Antilles.
The first exploits of these privateers were the invasion of Brazil and the sacking of San Salvador, of Lima and Callao (1624).
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "privateers" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
