Privateer
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A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since piracy was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant shi
The French privateer Confiance (right) boarding the British East Indiaman Kent on 7 October 1800
A Dutch squadron engaging the Dunkirkers off Nieuwpoort in 1640
Greek privateer Lambros Katsonis raided Ottoman shipping in the 18th century
Woodes Rogers and his men searching Spanish ladies for their jewels in Guayaquil in 1709
William Kidd
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William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settl
Privateer
…sail against the French, but who ignored his commission to raid Mughal shipping in the Red Sea instead. Some privateers faced prosecution for piracy. William Kidd accepted a commission from King William III of England to hunt pirates but was later hanged for piracy. He had been unable to produce the papers of the…
Portrait by James Thornhill
Captain Kidd in New York Harbor, in a c. 1920 painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
The Charles Galley, a contemporary vessel of a comparable design to Adventure Galley
Howard Pyle's painting of Kidd in New York Harbor