letter of marque

letter of marque, the name given to the commission issued by a belligerent state to a private shipowner authorizing him to employ his vessel as a ship of war. A ship so used is termed a privateer.

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Before regular navies were established, states relied on the assistance of private ships equipped for war such as, for example, those from the Cinque Ports in England. The earliest mention of letters of marque issued to English ships is in a patent roll of Edward I dated 1293 which ordered a stay of letters of marque previously granted to his subjects in Aquitaine. In the 14th century admiralty courts were instituted in England to administer prize law, and at the beginning of the 15th century the High Court of Admiralty was established. Local vice-admiralty courts were later set up, the earliest being at Jamaica in 1662. Throughout the Tudor period privateers such as Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Richard Hawkins, and Sir Francis Drake were encouraged or restrained according to prevailing political conditions. At the same period the Dutch Sea Beggars and French Huguenot privateers were active.

Since crews were not paid by the state, privateers were entitled to cruise for their own profit. Admiralty courts in England or equivalent prize courts elsewhere judged the legitimacy of all captures under the prize laws. This method of commerce destruction was adopted by all nations from the earliest times until the 19th century, but it frequently proved impossible to restrain the activities of privateers within the legitimate bounds laid down in their commissions or letters of marque. Hence, in earlier times, it was often difficult to distinguish between privateers, pirates, corsairs, or buccaneers, many of whom sailed without genuine commissions.

This state of affairs continued throughout the next century, English buccaneers in the West Indies such as Sir Henry Morgan or William Dampier sometimes sailing under letters of marque and sometimes not. From 1690 French privateers sailing from the Channel ports of Dunkirk and Saint-Malo were particularly active against English commerce. With the growth of the Royal Navy the British Admiralty began to discourage privateering, because it was more popular among sailors than serving in the navy. It also led to trouble with neutral powers, even though a declaratory act was always passed at the beginning of a war that laid down the right to capture enemy vessels at sea and to have such captures adjudicated under prize law. Extensive use of privateers was made in France and in New England throughout the 18th century. During the American Revolution the American colonists found it difficult to form a new navy because over 1,000 letters of marque had been granted to privateers. The popularity of privateering continued in the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States. The ships of the U.S. Navy numbered in the dozens, while more than 500 vessels were sailing under letters of marque. Meanwhile, the prospects of French privateers had been ruined by the efficiency of frigates and convoy escorts.

Privateering was outlawed in 1856 by the Declaration of Paris, but the United States declined to accede to the treaty on the grounds that privateering was less expensive than maintaining a standing navy. During the American Civil War Pres. Abraham Lincoln was authorized to issue letters of marque, but both sides preferred to arm their own merchantmen as regular warships. The rise of the professional American navy at the end of the 19th century and the American embrace of the sea power doctrines of Alfred Thayer Mahan finally led the U.S. to abandon privateering.

The conversion of the Russian “volunteer” ships Petersburg and Smolensk on the high seas during the Russo-Japanese War led to a renewed discussion of letters of marque and state-sponsored privateers. The “volunteer” ships passed through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles as commercial vessels, but upon entering the Red Sea, they mounted deck weapons and hoisted naval colours. It was agreed, after a vain attempt to solve the question in a way satisfactory to all parties, that the subject of conversion on the high seas was outside the scope of the Declaration of Paris. The raising of merchant vessels to the status of warships led to difficulty in distinguishing between volunteer warships and privateers. That subject was made one of those for settlement by the Second Hague Conference in 1907. Several conventions on naval warfare in respect to merchant vessels at sea were adopted, but the one setting up an international prize court to hear appeals from belligerent prize courts was never ratified. The rules adopted were as follows:

1. A merchant ship converted into a warship cannot have the rights and duties appertaining to vessels having that status unless it is placed under the direct authority, immediate control, and responsibility of the power the flag of which it flies.
2. Merchant ships converted into warships must bear the external marks which distinguish the warships of their nationality.
3. The commander must be in the service of the state and duly commissioned by the proper authorities. The commander’s name must figure on the list of the officers of the fighting fleet.
4. The crew must be subject to military discipline.
5. Every merchant ship converted into a warship is bound to observe in its operations the laws and customs of war.
6. A belligerent who converts a merchant ship into a warship must, as soon as possible, announce such conversion in the list of its warships.

It has since become part of international law that armed merchant ships must be listed as warships, though there have been various interpretations of the word “armed.”

The ambiguous status of the privateer has ceased to exist, and letters of marque are no longer issued, as belligerent countries now assume full responsibility for all converted ships engaged in military operations. The right to arm merchant vessels in self-defense was generally admitted in World War I and World War II.