| Popis: |
When the Treaty of Ghent brought the War of 1812 to an official close on Christmas Eve, 1814, it marked the end of privateering as an international weapon of war. Over the centuries privateering, also known as commerce raiding and guerre de course, had evolved well-understood procedures for seizing prizes and legally securing them through the courts. Seventeenth-century English jurisdictional wrangling had clarified the authority of the High Court of Admiralty and colonial vice-admiralty courts to adjudicate questions of prize. By the early nineteenth century prizemaking had become an accepted weapon in the naval arsenal, while privateering played a vital role in the war against trade. In examining the development of private armed warfare from its earliest known records to its role in Atlantic Canada in the War of 1812, this study has compared the prizemaking role of privateers from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with that of Royal Navy vessels stationed along the American coast.... |
