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Predators and Opportunists: British Seafarers as Prize Takers, 1707-1828

Predators and Opportunists: British Seafarers as Prize Takers, 1707-1828. David J Starkey Maritime Historical Studies Centre University of Hull. All At Sea Conference The National Archives, Kew 7 October 2014. Structure of Paper. Forms of Prize-Taking Activity

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Predators and Opportunists: British Seafarers as Prize Takers, 1707-1828

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  1. Predators and Opportunists:British Seafarers as Prize Takers, 1707-1828 David J Starkey Maritime Historical Studies Centre University of Hull All At Sea Conference The National Archives, Kew 7 October 2014

  2. Structure of Paper • Forms of Prize-Taking Activity • Drivers of British Prize-Taking Activity • Global Numbers of Prize-Taking Seafarers 4.Micro Perspectives: Prize-Taking, 1777-1783

  3. Sources (but not Methods) GLOBAL Merchant Seafarers: Sixpenny Office Accounts (TNA, ADM 68) Privateersmen: Letter of Marque Declarations (TNA, HCA 25-26) Naval Seamen: Parliamentary Papers, 1859, VI, 364. House of Commons Journals, XXII-XLII MICRO Prize Taking by Case: Prize Papers (TNA, HCA 32, 42, 45) Newspapers

  4. 1. Forms of Prize-Taking Activity Parasitic pirates growing within, feeding off, merchant shipping Predatory privateers:seafarers preying on other species of seafarer Opportunistic merchant & naval seafarers who seized opportunities to take prizes

  5. 2. Drivers of Prize-Taking Activity Reprisal: faded from the early 17th century Enterprise: defining characteristic 1620s-1780s Neutrality: shaped prize-taking enterprise 1750s+

  6. 3. Global Numbers of Prize-Taking Seafarers Range Low 46,019 (1724) High 276,005 (1812) Spikes 103,965 (1746) 145,655 (1760) 186,368 (1782) 234,663 (1800)

  7. The British Seafaring Workforce by Year, 1707-1828

  8. Merchant Seafarers Range low 26,283 (1726) high 169,079 (1815) East Indiaman, 18th century Wages (able seaman, 18th century) Peacetime: c. 25 shillings per month Wartime: up to 80s per month Collier Brig, c.1700

  9. Merchant Seafarers by Year, 1707-1828

  10. Privateersmen Range low 7 (1814) high 8,831 (1781) Spikes (monthly) 10,632 June 1744 11,331 Oct 1757 19,465 Feb 1781 Graffiti scratched on the walls of a French prison at La Rochelle by British privateersmen, 1746-1781 LuocBucherie, Les graffiti de la Tour de la Lanterneà la Rochelle (1978) 13.

  11. Privateersmen Remuneration Shares in prize fund generated through seizure of enemy property Supplemented by wages in some ventures Graffiti scratched on the walls of chateau Cognac by British privateersmen imprisoned by the French, 1756-1758 Luoc Bucherie, Les graffiti du château François 1er: Cognac (1993) 34.

  12. Privateersmen by Year, 1707-1828

  13. Range Low 6,298 (1725) High 147,047 (1813) Spikes 49,860 (1714) 51,191 (1747) 86,626 (1760) 105,443 (1782) 131,959 (1801) The Royal Navy ‘… by far the largest and most complex of all government services, and indeed by a large margin the largest industrial organization in the western world’. N.A.M. Rodger, The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy (1988) 29. Naval Seamen Wages (able seaman, 1660-1797) 22.5 shillings per lunar month Plus prize money

  14. Naval Seamen by Year, 1707-1828

  15. 4. Micro Perspectives: Prize-Taking, 1777-1783 Number of Seafarers, 1775-1786 Private Navy Total 1775 67,577 19,846 87,423 1778 72,852 72,258 145,110 1782 80,925 105,443 186,368 1786 74,270 17,259 91,529

  16. Impact of the Dutch War “Never was the spirit of privateering at such a pitch as at present; all Lloyd’s Coffee House is in a ferment and every vessel that can swim upon the water for 24 hours is expediting for a cruise against the Dutch.” “Almost every vessel that lay for sale, or lay idle in the Thames, was bought up yesterday to act as a privateer against the Dutch.” “The present moment is a fine harvest for privateers. The trade of the Dutch is now very great, and several homeward bound fleets are shortly expected, which from their imaginary security must fall an easy conquest to our ships of war.”

  17. A Privateering ‘Mania’ … BUT … Only 129 Dutch properties condemned to British privateers (872 French prizes; 195 Dutch prizes to the Navy) An exceptional number of prizes condemned to joint-captors

  18. Predatory Congestion in the Channel, December 1780-April 1781 Large number of relatively small, heavily-manned predators & opportunists Predators ‘cruised’ off SW England, often within sight of land, and other predators & opportunists Congestion led to much conflict in Prize Courts, both between captors and with neutral consignees

  19. Intensive Privateering against the Dutch, 1780-81 Off South West England

  20. The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttell Commander of the King George of Topsham 350 tons, 22 carriage guns, 150 men Cruised off Cape Finisterre in search of Spanish shipping in 1779 Captured San Luis, from New Orleans to Bordeaux, with indigo, skins, coffee and 8 passengers

  21. Prize Papers (HCA 42) detail appeal of Peter Paul Vanden Bussche, citizen of Ostend Buttell sent Bussche on a merchant ship to Trondheim and kept his clothes, money and goods on account of him being a neutral subject of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Germany Court found in favour of Bussche, awarding costs and damages against Buttell

  22. These cases indicate … the prospects facing predators were diminishing in the American Revolutionary War despite the increase in activity neutrality was increasingly difficult to counter why British investors turned to trade and opportunistic prize-taking after 1793

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