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Resources on American privateering


DBorgens

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Hello,

Number two son (25) asked if I have any nautical history books about American privateering. Since I don’t have any, and MSW is such a great resource, I’m asking for him.

 

So please, what good books are out there?

 

Thanks,

Dave B

Current build: HMS Pegasus, English Pinnace (on hold)

Completed build: MS BluenoseSkippercraft

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The Search for Speed Under Sail and The Baltimore Clipper, It's Origin and Development both by Howard Chapelle have a good bit about American Privateer craft. 

 

Not a book, but the April issue of Naval History has a focus on War of 1812 privateers. 

Joe Volz

 

 

Current build:

Model Shipways "Benjamin W. Latham"

 

 

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Caldercraft HMS "Cruizer   Caldercraft HMBV "Granado"   Model Shipways "Prince De Neufchatel"

 

 

 

 

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Dave;

 

There is so much out there on that particular subject. I am giving you 2 sites where you can see where the interest lies.

 

My first site on what I research is https://archive.org This is a site where all the books are FREE, there is no copyright infringement. The books are 100 or more years old. As my field is Dutch ships I have found a slew of information/books on Dutch ship building. I looked up privateering and below is the page.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=american%20privateering

 

http://www.archives.gov/

http://search.archives.gov/query.html?qt=privateering&submit=GO&col=1arch&col=social&qc=1arch&qc=social

 

Marc

Current Built: Zeehaen 1639, Dutch Fluit from Dutch explorer Abel J. Tasman

 

Unofficial motto of the VOC: "God is good, but trade is better"

 

Many people believe that Captain J. Cook discovered Australia in 1770. They tend to forget that Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon landed on Australia’s northern coast in 1606. Cook never even sighted the coast of Western Australia).

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The Search for Speed Under Sail and The Baltimore Clipper, It's Origin and Development both by Howard Chapelle have a good bit about American Privateer craft. 

 

Not a book, but the April issue of Naval History has a focus on War of 1812 privateers. 

 

 

I just received my copy of The Baltimore Clipper today from amazon.  So far it looks very interesting.  Will look up the Search for Speed when I get a chance.

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I did a very quick search and one title seemed to stand out.

 

Patriot Pirates: the privateer war for freedom and fortune in the American Revolution by Robert H. Patton, published in 2008.

 

There are surely many more titles out there, but this is one that seems to catch the search engines.

 

Russ

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Dave:

Although only loosely associated with American privateering, the book Ben Franklin's Privateers by William Bell Clark is a good read and a well researched book. It covers privateers supervised by Franklin while he was our minister to the court of France during the Revolution. I have read this book and I can personally recommend it.

 

Russ

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For more academic reading, there is Carl E. Swanson - Privateering in Early America International Journal of Maritime History December 1989 1: 253-278, http://ijh.sagepub.com/content/1/2/253.citation

 

Dan Conlin - Privateer Entrepot: Commercial Militarization in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, 1793-1805 The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du nord, VIII, No. 2 (April 1998), 21-38. http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/indices/index_vol_8_e.html

 

 

Wayne

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
Epictetus

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Also the following:

 

"The Republics Private Navy: The American Privateering Business as Practiced by Baltimore during the War of 1812" by Jerome R. Garitee, Mystic Seaport, Wesleyan University Press, 1977.

 

"Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner." by Goeffrey M. Footner. Tidewater Press Centerville, MD, 1998.

 

As far as plans are concerned, Chapelle's "The Search for Speed Under Sail" is the best.

Edited by uss frolick
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  • 3 weeks later...

I found A history of American privateers by Edgar Maclay to be a really comprehensive, and readable, look at the exploits of privateers from the revolution and the War of 1812. I think it's an old book, so you can probably find it for free somewhere if you have an ereader.

Under construction: Mamoli Roter Lowe

Completed builds: Constructo Enterprise, AL Le Renard

Up next: Panart Lynx, MS Harriet Lane

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Maybe not "American" but definitely "the Americas" : Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: "How a generation of swashbuckling Jews carved out an empire in the New World" by Kritzler.

 

It was a good read and something that I knew nothing about.

 

Drown you may, but go you must and your reward shall be a man's pay or a hero's grave

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