Bold Privateers: Terror, Plunder and Profit on Canada's Atlantic Coast

In war, disrupting and depleting the enemy’s supply of goods is the way to victory. During the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, armed merchant ships were licensed to cruise the seas, alone or in small convoys to chase and capture enemy cargo vessels and to attack coastal forts.

This collection of fascinating stories of the era’s notorious privateers begins with Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville who led a campaign against the Hudson’s Bay Company posts in the Far North, and a few years later against east coast strongholds. Author Roger Marsters uncovers the exploits of French, English and American privateers.

One of the cleverest and most successful was, Enos Collins who launched his legendary schooner, Liverpool Packet, in 1811. Collins picked off dozens of vessels bound for Boston, sending each one with its cargo, to Halifax where the booty was sold in the Court of Vice-Admiralty. These accounts of privateer captains, their fortunes and failures, reveals the importance of booty hunting during war.