Award-winning Marblehead-based author Eric Jay Dolin came to the Mattapoisett Library on August 17 with copies of his new book and revealed a little-known reason the United States won its war for independence.
“Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution” explores the role played in the war effort by privateers, ships manned by private captains and crew. Their role was to capture and plunder British ships and other merchants’ ships stocked with the goods that the fledgling country needed for its own survival.
Most privateers were from Massachusetts, Dolin said, both the captains and the crew. In fact, New England states were the first to pass Privateering acts and resolutions officially sanctioning the activity.
What all privateers also had in common was that they needed Letters of Mark from the local municipal authority for permission to ply their trade. These letters gave them rules to follow and the authority to do their privateering work. It also meant they were legally allowed to auction/sell their plundered merchandise when they returned to an American port. The privateer owner had to post a bond to get such a Letter.
Dolin estimated between 1,600 to 1,800 American privateer ships were in operation during the war years and had between 30 to 40 crewmen each. (He said he found no record there was ever a female privateer.)
By the end of the war, privateers had captured 1,600-1,800 British ships; the British had captured 700-800 privateer ships. Many of the American privateer ships became merchant vessels after the war.
Black men also served as privateers, he noted. Some were free men; others were slaves who ran away to freedom on a privateer ship. They risked the fact that capture by a British ship meant enslavement in the British Isles. But all privateers risked imprisonment on British prison ships, where 12 to 16 men a day died in their crowded lower decks.
According to Dolin, criticism of privateering at the time included that it siphoned valuable manpower from the war’s naval battle effort and that privateers were in it for the profit, not the patriotism. However, other critics acknowledged that it served both profit and patriotism because it was an act against the British.
“And it contributed materially to the economy,” Dolin said. “The goods went to American ports. Each privateer crew member was able to provide for their families.”
In his closing remarks, Dolin had special praise for the town of Mattapoisett. He said he thoroughly enjoyed his meal at a local restaurant and added that while this was his first visit to the town, he doesn’t want it to be his last.
“It’s lovely here,” he said. “I hope to come back here and do more walking around next time. I will come back.”
Dolin’s presentation was cosponsored by the Mattapoisett Public Library trustees and the Mattapoisett Museum and was part of the library’s “Purrington Lectures Series.” For more information on Dolin, visit www.ericjaydolin.com.
By Michael J. DeCicco