privateer

But the engine was heavy, thirsty and unreliable, and a difficult season followed before Jordan ditched the Yamaha for a privateer Hart engine.

From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2025

She either became a privateer herself, taking to the Mediterranean Sea to attack Spanish holdings such as Gibraltar, or she licensed privateers to attack Spain in her name.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2024

His father, Jan Jansen, a Dutch privateer, was captured by one of the Moorish states in 1618.

From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2019

The San Juan Bautista, a Spanish ship transporting enslaved Africans, was bound for Mexico when it was attacked by the White Lion and another privateer, the Treasurer, and forced to surrender its African prisoners.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2019

“The Astrea mounts nineteen guns, Captain Prince. If any of your crew has ever shipped on a privateer or a letter of marque ship they—ah—might be useful.”

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

The U.S. can gain some leverage in the stalemate by reviving the law of prize, which governs ships seized during war, and by authorizing privateers to attack enemy shipping.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

In theory, pirates plunder and pillage outside the law, while corsairs were privateers regulated by authorities.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 11, 2024

The privateers were sponsored by the state, and set a ransom of 500 Guineas for Capt Lambton who was sailing The Stephenson from Bristol to Newcastle at the time.

From BBC ● May 17, 2023

As hostility between England and Spain grew, Elizabeth’s government sponsored privateers – pirates working for the English crown – led by a skillful and ruthless captain named Sir Francis Drake.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

“Because,” Collins growled, “he sailed on privateers before he was knee high to a capstan. He knows guns. If we have trouble with the French he’ll be worth the rest of the crew put together.”

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

An 1856 treaty purported to ban privateering, but the U.S. refused to sign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

The Protestant queen wanted colonies that would act as an ideological counterweight to Spanish Catholicism in the Americas and provide a base of operations for privateering expeditions that would raid Spanish shipping.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

While the practice known as privateering is archaic, the idea has come up in recent decades.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2022

In privateering and blockade-runner cases involving the seizure of neutral and Confederate vessels, for example, the court did not defer to the executive’s views.

From Slate ● Jan. 8, 2019

In 1619, the first Africans arrived in the Virginia colony on a privateering ship.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone