A Proclamation for Granting the Distribution of Prizes During the Present Hostilities.

£4,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A rare broadside issued by the British government during the War of 1812, revising the rules regarding the distribution of prize money for naval crews and privateers upon their capture of enemy vessels . At the outset of the War of 1812, both England and the United States actively sought assistance from privateers. The Royal Navy was pre-occupied with defending Britain and its Caribbean colonies from French incursions, and so had relatively few warships available to protect British North American shipping. Meanwhile, the United States Navy, then barely a decade old, comprised only a handful of frigates and smaller warships. Before long, hundreds of privateer ships from both nations were prowling the seas. Indeed, the operations of American privateers ultimately proved a more significant threat to British trade than the United States Navy itself. Operating throughout the Atlantic until the close of the war, most notably from Baltimore, the American privateers took approximately 1,300 British merchant vessels during the conflict. The British tried to limit these privateering losses by the strict enforcement of convoy by the Royal Navy, as well as through the direct capture of American privateers, ultimately taking 278 ships. Issued on 26th October 1812, four months after the beginning of the war, this broadside outlines in detail the British government’s revisions to the rules regarding the allocation of prize money from captured ships, both for naval vessels and would-be priva

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