USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -privateer, privately owned armed vessel commissioned by a belligerent state to attack enemy ships, usually vessels of commerce. Privateering was carried on by all nations from the earliest times until the 19th century.

Detailed explanation-2: -Privateers. A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Because of the high level of piracy and impressment, merchant ships where armed. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as a letter of marque, during wartime.

Detailed explanation-3: -Crews ranged from a few men in a whaleboat to more than 200 aboard a large, fully equipped privateer. Two-masted schooners and brigantines were most often used in privateering, reflecting the kind of vessels available to American seamen.

Detailed explanation-4: -Corsairs (French: corsaire) were privateers, authorized to conduct raids on shipping of a nation at war with France, on behalf of the French Crown.