Privateers

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by attacking the
commercial livelihood of Great Britain's merchants.
It is ironic that the entire notion of privateering began in Great Britain.
In 1649 a frigate named Constant-Warwick was constructed in England for a
privateer in the employ of the Earl of Warwick. Seeing how profitable this
investment was, a great many of the English peerage commissioned their own
privateers. The Seven-Years War saw the proliferation of privateering on both
the English and French coasts as each attempted to disrupt their opponent's
colonial trade. American investors quickly entered this battle, commissioning
ships to prey upon cargo vessels coming to and from French colonial holdings in
the Americas. Here began the American privateer heritage, and when the American
Revolution began many of these same men viewed the opportunity to profit, and
resumed their ventures. The American privateer vessel was a ship "armed and
fitted out at private expense for the purpose of preying on the ...

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that era, commercial or military, carried at
least some cannon. However, these ships could not be outfitted with as many
cannons as their owners desired. The term "pierced" refers to the rectangles
that were cut in a ship's sides through which cannons were fired. Cannons were
usually located on either the top deck, or the level just below it. This lower
level was preferable because cannon operation required a good deal of space due
to recoil, and lurching cannons were dangerous obstacles to crews working the
sails on the main deck. However, these lower piercings were difficult to make
after the ship was constructed and affected the structural integrity of the ship
itself. It was ...

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