ng fortune in
the same calling. In 1775-76 there were commissioned 136 vessels, with
1360 guns; in 1777, 73 vessels, with 730 guns; in 1778, 115 privateers,
with a total of 1150 guns; in 1779, 167 vessels, with 2505 guns; in 1780,
228 vessels, with 3420 guns; in 1781, 449 vessels, with 6735 (the
high-water mark): and in 1782, 323 vessels, with 4845 guns. Moreover, the
vessels grew in size and efficiency, until toward the latter end of the
war they were in fact well-equipped war-vessels, ready to give a good
account of themselves in a fight with a British frigate, or even to engage
a shore battery and cut out prizes from a hostile harbor. It is, in fact,
a striking evidence of the gallantry and the patriotism of the
privateersmen that they did not seek to evade battle with the enemy's
armed forces. Their business was, of course, to earn profits for the
merchants who had fitted them out, and profits were most easily earned by
preying upon inferior or defenseless vessels. But the spirit of the war
was strong upon many of them, and it is not too much to say that the
privateers were handled as gallantly and accepted unfavorable odds in
battle as readily as could any men-of-war. Their ravages upon British
commerce plunged all commercial England into woe. The war had hardly
proceeded two years when it was formally declared in the House of Commons
that the losses to American privateers amounted to seven hundred and
thirty-three ships, of a value of over $11,000,000. Mr. Maclay estimates
from this that "our amateur man-of-war's men averaged more than four
prizes each," while some took twenty and one ship twenty-eight in a single
cruise. Nearly eleven hundred prisoners were taken with the captured
ships. While there are no complete figures for the whole period of the war
obtainable, it is not to be believed that quite so high a record was
maintained, for dread of privateers soon drove British shipping into their
harbors, whence they put forth, if at all, under the protection of naval
convoys. Nevertheless, the number of captures must have continued great
for some years; for, as is shown by the foregoing figures, the spoils were
sufficiently attractive to cause a steady increase in the number of
privateers until the last year of the war.

There followed dull times for the privateersmen. Most of them returned to
their ordinary avocations of sea or shore--became peaceful sailors, or
fishermen, or ship-builders, or farmers once again.