"Privateer" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... France, at least during the first year of the war, each correspondent, particularly a foreigner, was merely a privateer, making his own fight for a chance to work, and pulling what wires he could. After his brief excursion he returned to Berlin, a mere tourist, so to speak, and had to begin the old tiresome round—his own embassy—the German ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various
... uncommon thing for them to fall into the hands of an enemy; but they did not always succumb without doing battle, and sometimes they had the honours of the day. In 1793 the Antelope packet fought a privateer off the coast of Cuba and captured it, after 49 of the 65 men the privateer carried had been killed or disabled. The Antelope had only two killed and three wounded—one mortally. In 1803 the Lady Hobart, a vessel of 200 tons, sailing from Nova Scotia ...
— A Hundred Years by Post - A Jubilee Retrospect • J. Wilson Hyde
... integrity and courage, acquainted with the pirates and their places of rendezvous, and as one in all respects fit to be intrusted with the command of a vessel engaged in such a difficult service. He had, indeed, commanded a privateer, in regular commission, against the pirates in the West Indies, in which service he had acquitted himself as a brave and adventurous man. The project not being entertained by the Board of Admiralty, a private adventure against ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... Lord Banff, commanded the Hastings man-of war in 1742 and 1743, and captured, during that time, a valuable outward-bound Spanish register-ship, a Spanish privateer of twenty guns, a French polacca with a rich cargo, and other vessels. He died at Lisbon in November 1746, at the early age ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... men; but his lid drooped so, you'd hardly know 'twas missing. He'd a way, too, of talking to himself as he went along, so that folks reckoned him silly. It was queer how that maggot stuck in their heads; for in handling a privateer or a Guernsey cargo—sink the or run it straight—there wasn't his master in Polperro. The very ...
— The Laird's Luck • Arthur Quiller-Couch
... wrote the Minister, Berryer, "laden with goods such as are wanted in the colony, was captured by a privateer from St. Malo, and brought into Quebec. You sold the whole cargo for eight hundred thousand francs. The purchasers made a profit of two millions. You bought back a part for the King at one million, or two hundred thousand ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman
... these seas these fifteen years, except one, which was seen, as I hear, in the bay of Siam, about a month since; but you may be assured she is gone to the southward; nor was she a ship of any great force, or fit for the work; she was not built for a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate crew that were on board, after the captain and some of his men had been murdered by the Malaccans, at or near the ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe
... shelves, little thinking what dreadful scenes would be enacted upon them. The fact is that the Mary Ellen was destined for the African trade, in which she made many very successful voyages. In 1779, however, she was converted into a privateer. My father, at the present time, would not, perhaps, be thought very respectable; but I assure you he was so considered in those days. So many people in Liverpool were, to use an old and trite sea-phrase, "tarred with the same ...
— Recollections of Old Liverpool • A Nonagenarian
... Britain tended further to make the carrying trade of neutrals difficult. Bainbridge had therefore to expect, and when he could to elude or beat off, much interference on the part of French and British cruisers alike. He is said to have forced a British schooner, probably a privateer, which attacked him when on his way from Bordeaux to St Thomas, to strike, but he did not take possession. On another occasion he is said to have taken a man out of a British ship in retaliation for the impressment of an American seaman by H.M.S. "Indefatigable," ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various
... by a foreign fleet to the United States in a salute to the American flag. As it was after sunset when the salutes were exchanged, and in order that there should be no mistake about it, the next morning, the 15th of February, Jones transferred his flag to the Independence, a small privateer, and deliberately sailed through La Motte Picquet's great fleet of towering line-of-battle-ships, saluting ...
— South American Fights and Fighters - And Other Tales of Adventure • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... held an officer's commission in Washington's army in 1776 and was also Commodore of a privateer out of Boston in 1812. In consideration of his service in the war of 1776, the United States Government gave him a grant of land in Ohio, at that time one of the territories. Some years ago his heirs undertook to look up the records, but found they had been burned in the ...
— The Chignecto Isthmus And Its First Settlers • Howard Trueman
... case in which the point of a sheath-knife remained in the back of an individual for nine years. Bush reported to Sir Astley Cooper the history of a man who, as he supposed, received a wound in the back by canister shot while serving on a Tartar privateer in 1779. There was no ship-surgeon on board, and in about a month the wound healed without surgical assistance. The man suffered little inconvenience and performed his duties as a seaman, and was impressed into the Royal Navy. In August, 1810, he complained of pain in ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... Yet these ruffians often had dealings with seemingly respectable tradesmen. Having captured a few ships, and taken all the booty on board his own, the pirate would sail for some port. There he would show some old letters of marque, swear that he was a privateer, and had captured the goods lawfully from the enemy, for the world was always at war in those days. And as the goods were going cheap, too many questions would not be asked. Thus a profitable ...
— This Country Of Ours • H. E. Marshall Author: Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall
... Virginia and Florida. It is farther said by this Gentleman, that one Oliver Humphreys, a Merchant, who died, not long before the Date of this Letter, told him, that when he lived at Surinam, he spoke with an English Privateer or Pirate, who being near Florida a careening his Vessel, had learnt, as he thought the Indian Language, which his Friend said was perfect Welsh. "My Brother, Mr. Lloyd adds, having heard this, (Mr. Jones's Adventures) and meeting with this Jones at New ...
— An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, Concerning the - Discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the Year, 1170 • John Williams
... the North would have no right to treat them as such, but if the North in defiance of international opinion did so treat them, Great Britain had at least warned its subjects that they, if engaged in service on a Southern privateer, had no claim to British protection; a blockade of the South to be respected must be effective at least to the point where a vessel attempting to pass through was likely to be captured; the plan of blockading the entire Southern coast, with ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams
... Printed matter presajxo. Printing-press presilo. Prior (title) cxefabato. Prior antauxa. Priority antauxeco. Prism prismo. Prison malliberejo. Prisoner malliberulo. Prisoner of war militkaptito. Private privata. Privateer marrabisto. Privation senigo. Privilege privilegio. Privily sekrete. Prize premio. Prize sxati. Probable kredinda—ebla. Probability kredebleco, kredindeco, igxebleco. Probation provtempo. Probationer ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... furnishing a ship, and could find a plucky captain to command her, sent her out as a privateer. Even the Companies of the City of London clubbed their means together for the purpose of sending out Sir Waiter Raleigh to capture Spanish ships, and afterwards to divide the plunder; as any one may see on referring to the documents of the ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles
... carpenter work, who very willingly pointed out the road. We found at the Englishman's a young man from Middelburgh,[241] who had been sold as a servant, but had served out his time. He was in the last English war, had been taken by a privateer and carried to Virginia, and there sold for four years, which having expired, he thought of returning to Fatherland next year. We were unacquainted with each other, but he was glad to see one of his countrymen. He took us to the road, and we proceeded ...
— Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 • Jasper Danckaerts
... by a privateer or pirate," sung out another voice. This was followed by a heavy crunching blow, as when the spike of a butcher's axe is driven through a bullock's ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott
... Van Noordt's entire voyage to the Philippines. The battle ends, on the whole, disastrously for Van Noordt. Among the plunder found on the Dutch ships is a commission granted to Esaias de Lende as a privateer against the Spaniards in the Indias. Suit being brought against the admiral Alcega for deserting the flagship in the battle with Van Noordt, Morga presents therein his version of the affair (January 5, 1601)—throwing the blame for the loss of the flagship on Alcega's ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume XI, 1599-1602 • Various
... at the outset by two French privateers, sailed finally from L'Orient, after one futile attempt, August 14, 1779, and made during the first forty days of the fifty days' cruise a number of unimportant prizes. On the 18th of August, the privateer Monsieur, which was not bound by the concordat, took a prize, which the captain of the Monsieur rifled, and then ordered into port. Jones, however, opposed the captain's order, and sent the prize to L'Orient, whereupon the Monsieur parted company with the squadron. According to Fanning, ...
— Paul Jones • Hutchins Hapgood
... dreamt that on his way to the harbour he crossed the churchyard and fell into an open grave. Telling this to his parents at "The Pollet," they would not let him go, with a sort of superstitious wisdom; for, strangely enough, the smack was seized on its voyage by a privateer, and all the crew and passengers were consigned—for twelve years—to a French prison! I have heard my father tell this tale, and noted early how true was Dr. Watts' awkward line, "On little things what great depend." I might say more about warnings in dreams and other somnolencies, whereof ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... Tofoa and Namuka, the natives would have attempted to take the ship had they thought success possible as, we now know, they had planned to capture Cook's ships, and as they actually did capture the privateer Port-au-Prince in 1806 at Haapai. In 1808 William Mariner, one of the survivors of that ill-fated ship, who has left behind him the best account of a native race that exists probably in any language, was led by the strange ...
— Voyage of H.M.S. Pandora - Despatched to Arrest the Mutineers of the 'Bounty' in the - South Seas, 1790-1791 • Edward Edwards
... laid away in memory this all comes back to me pure and fresh, but on that morning I gave it no heed. From the heights I passed along through quiet streets into the lower town, thence to the beach, where I was soon inquiring among the sailors for the privateer. These women looked askance at me, and regarded my unfamiliar uniform with suspicion, but after great difficulty one of their number was induced to carry me alongside an ominous looking craft lying in the harbor—a black-hulled brig of probably six hundred and fifty tons burden. Of the sentinel ...
— The Black Wolf's Breed - A Story of France in the Old World and the New, happening - in the Reign of Louis XIV • Harris Dickson
... before Robinson Crusoe appeared, in 1719. Selkirk was a buccaneer on a ship cruising in the South Atlantic. He quarreled violently with his captain, and at his own request was put ashore alone on the island of Juan Fernandez. Here he lived for four years and four months, and was then rescued by a privateer. The adventures of Selkirk have so little in common with those of Robinson Crusoe that it is doubtful whether Defoe had the former in mind at all. Moreover, there had been published in England some twenty years before Defoe ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V3 • Charles H. Sylvester
... Dawkins, laying his hand upon my arm, 'what is your real name? Are you he who commanded the "Dwarf" privateer in the Isle ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever
... off the sea, the privateers continued the naval war. At that time a merchantman could be turned into a capable fighting ship by adding strengthening timbers and providing the necessary guns. Such a ship, when commissioned as a privateer by the United States government, could capture the enemy's merchantmen and on occasion fight small cruisers. For instance, the brig Yankee, 160 tons burden, eighteen guns, 120 men, captured twenty-nine prizes, one of which sold for more than $500,000. The money was divided equally between ...
— The Mentor: The War of 1812 - Volume 4, Number 3, Serial Number 103; 15 March, 1916. • Albert Bushnell Hart
... Crosbie on the other side. I could even go so far as to contend that one of Shakespear's defects is his lack of an intelligent comprehension of feudalism. He had of course no prevision of democratic Collectivism. He was, except in the commonplaces of war and patriotism, a privateer through and through. Nobody in his plays, whether king or citizen, has any civil public business or conception of such a thing, except in the method of appointing constables, to the abuses in which he called attention quite in the vein of the Fabian Society. ...
— Dark Lady of the Sonnets • George Bernard Shaw
... and go for a sail in a lugger borrowed from a boat-builder, but while they are out, there is a violent change in the weather, with the wind reversing and increasing to a point in which the lugger is swamped, and about to sink. They are picked up by a passing vessel, which turns out to be a privateer, and her captain refuses to waste time by landing them. So they are found positions in the crew, and take part in the subsequent events. They do battle with a Spanish vessel, loot her, and let her go. Then they arrive at Cartagena in ...
— Two Gallant Sons of Devon - A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood
... and, never having known the influences of education and refinement, he is rude and imperious in manner. His ship lies in a Spanish port fitting for sea, but not with freight, for, tired of peaceful trading, Lee is equipping his vessel as a privateer. A Spanish lady who has just been bereaved of her husband comes to him to ask a passage to America, for she has no suspicion of his intent. Her jewels and well-filled purse arouse Lee's cupidity, and with ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner
... stern-window, and lined along two of its sides with mahogany doors leading, as I supposed, to sleeping cabins: the panels—not to speak of the brass handles and finger-plates—shining so that a man might have seen his face in them, to shave by. "But why all these women on board a privateer?" thought I, as I tried a quill on my thumb-nail, and embarked ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 20 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Janet, who eloped with her tutor, and here lived in poverty, paying her washerwoman with costly lace from her trunks; of the Oldport dame who escaped from France at the opening of the Revolution, was captured by pirates on her voyage to America, then retaken by a privateer and carried into Boston, where she took refuge in John Hancock's house. They can describe to you the Malbone Gardens, and, as the night wanes and the embers fade, can give the tale of the Phantom of Rough Point. Gliding ...
— Oldport Days • Thomas Wentworth Higginson
... before you a report of the Secretary of State on the case of the Danish brigantine Henrick, taken by a French privateer in 1799, retaken by an armed vessel of the United States, carried into a British island, and there adjudged to be neutral, but under allowance of such salvage and costs as absorbed nearly the whole amount of sales of the vessel and cargo. Indemnification for these ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 3 (of 4) of Volume 1: Thomas Jefferson • Edited by James D. Richardson |
