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British Privateers

Introduction
Privateers
Privateer Jack

See also:

Introduction

It is noted on our page about Thos. and Jon Brocklebank Ltd. shipping line that the company was founded about 1770. Their first houseflag was altered in 1820 to the white/blue one which flies today. The reason usually given for this is that many of Brocklebank's early vessels were privateers, whose mainmasts were reserved for the letters-of-marque pennant, so the houseflag was relegated to the fore. In books it is asserted that Brocklebank's is the only houseflag worn thus - however Sandbach, Tinne & Co. did it too.

Source: Loughran (1979) "A Survey of Mercantile Houseflags & Funnels"
Jarig Bakker, 28 February 2004

I know, of course, that privateers sometimes flew a pennant in imitation of the RN, and of the 1694 "Distinction" (or privateering) Jack, but I've never heard of a special "letters-of-marque" (or privateering) pennant? May I ask what this looked like, and when/if it was authorized?
Christopher Southworth, 28 February 2004

Privateers

Letter of Marquee: Another name for a privateer or corsair vessel, but apparently distinct in that its crew received regular wages "as any merchant marine sailor", in addition to shares from captures, while privateersmen served for booty alone. Up until 1701, English merchant and privateering vessels both flew a Union Jack "with a white escutcheon in the center". This was later changed so that letter-of-marquee and letter-of-reprisal vessels wore a two-pointed red burgee flag "with the Union Jack described in a canton at the upper corner near the staff". Only Royal Navy warships were allowed to fly the full Union Jack.
Source: Pirates and Privateers of the Americas, by David F. Marley, 1994, quoting Chapin's "Privateer Ships and Sailors: the First Century of American Colonial Privateering, 1625-1725, 1926
Jarig Bakker, 28 February 2004

It is certainly true that both of the types described above existed - the difference between a "special" and "general" issue of the licence I presume - but the carrying of "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" was common to both and was the difference between the privateer and the pirate. On the other hand they may well have been an 17th-18th Century distinction I don't know about?
Christopher Southworth, 28 February 2004

The Union Jack with a white escutcheon in the centre was only established in 1701; it was an apparently short-lived variant and was intended for ships commissioned by colonial governors for official business By "two-pointed" I assume the author mean 'swallow-tailed', and that certainly doesn't describe the "burgee", "Distinction" or "privateering" Jack (all three names are variously used) established in 1694, which had a rectangular red field with a Union canton occupying up to two-thirds of the flag, and which lasted until 1856. I think that perhaps Mr Chapin got a little bit confused about his dates and facts, which perhaps explains (if the original information came from the sa