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To Break Up the Haunts of Pirates The Revenue Cutters' war against maritime predators. by MR. CHRISTOPHER B. HAVERN, SR. Staff Historian 8 6 &RDVW; *XDUG +LVWRULDQ·V 2IÀFH Piracy, a violent criminal act against other parties at sea, has been a plague on maritime commerce since WKH GD\V PDQ ÀUVW WRRN WR WKH VHDV LQ ERDWV &LOLFLDQ; pirates raided the Mediterranean in the age of Clas- sical Greece and Rome, and the Vikings sailed out of Scandinavia to pillage and terrorize the coasts of early medieval Europe. Pirates also roamed the waves RI WKH $UDELDQ 6HD DQG ,QGLDQ 2FHDQ DQG ÁHHWV RI &KLQHVH; SLUDWH MXQNV SUH\HG RQ PDULWLPH WUDIÀF LQ WKH South China Sea. Pirates, however, differed from privateers. Both par- ties seized ships and property on the seas; however, privateers held "letters of marque" issued by sover- eign nations that authorized them to attack the ships of their war enemies. Pirates, on the other hand, were and are individuals or groups acting on their own DFFRUG DQG IRU WKHLU RZQ SURÀW $V VXFK WKH\ DUH "stateless" persons considered by maritime tradition and long-standing international law as "enemies of all nations." To those who historically suffered the pre- dations of either, however, the legal distinction was probably irrelevant. 3ULYDWHHUV ÁRXULVKHG LQ WKH th and 17th centuries, as the concurrent rise of the Spanish empire in the New World and the emergence of competing western European nation-states resulted in numerous wars. The Caribbean basin, astride the transit routes from the treasure port in Panama to Spain, became a hot- EHG RI FRQÁLFW DV (QJOLVK )UHQFK DQG 'XWFK SULYD- teers sailed west to intercept Spanish galleons laden with gold and silver. 6 Proceedings Spring 2012 In the rare periods of peace, those who had served the crowns of Europe often continued their raiding ZD\V 7KH UHVXPSWLRQ RI FRQÁLFW ZLWK WKH :DU RI Spanish Succession, from 1701 to 1714, saw the war- ring nations again issue large numbers of letters of marque. The intent was to cripple the maritime trade between their enemies and their colonies. When the Treaty of Utrecht ended the war, large numbers of privateer captains and crews were unemployed. With ships and dispositions ill-suited for the merchant trade, many turned to piracy.1 The Golden Age of Piracy This was the time of " Calico" Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Bar- tholomew Roberts, and Edward Teach or, as he is more com- monly known, Black- beard. Tortuga, New Providence, and Nas- sau, Bahamas were all pirate havens. Only through a concerted effort did Great Britain's Royal Navy largely put an end to this by the 1730s.2 Edward Teach (Blackbeard). Much like it had in earlier centuries, however, war again broke out, and between 1793 and 1815 the waters of the Caribbean basin would see large-scale privateering. Unlike those previous wars, however, www.uscg.mil/proceedings Background