Oct 31, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 15 segments
By 1812, the British had effectively won the war at sea. The French and their allies never stopped looking for ways to challenge the Royal Navy, but with each passing year, their struggle looked more…
Last episode, we covered the War at Sea, with a particular focus on the French Corsairs, a strange and colorful corner of the war where the forces of free enterprise met with the ancient codes of maritime combat.
Before we close the book on privateering, I should mention that this was not an entirely one-sided business.
There were British privateers as well as Frenchmen, Americans, and Scandinavians.
There were not as many of them, and they didn't play as prominent a role in the British war effort, and so they never really entered the public consciousness to the same degree as their counterparts on the other side.
British privateers mostly operated in the North Atlantic, preying on trade between the French Empire and the New World, primarily the United States.
He came from Nova Scotia in modern-day Canada and had been a mariner all his life.
He started his career as a privateer in the 1790s, mostly hunting American merchant ships headed for revolutionary France.
He seems to have had a talent for this business, quickly working his way up from junior officer to captain.
However, it wasn't until the War of 1812 that bars rose to international fame, or perhaps infamy.
When war broke out between Britain and the USA, Bars was in command of the Liverpool Packet, a small privateer schooner armed with five cannons, with a crew of about 45, sailing out of his hometown of Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
As we discussed last episode, privateers favored American-built ships, and the Liverpool Packet was no exception.
Captain Bars and the Liverpool Packet went on a hot streak in the fall of 1812, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, capturing seven American merchant vessels in under three months.
By early 1813, Bars and his crew had become so infamous that wealthy New England merchants began outfitting private warships, not for privateering, but with the sole aim of capturing or destroying the Liverpool Packet.
He blundered right into one of his American counterparts, the privateer schooner Thomas, out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The Thomas was the larger and slower ship, but the wind was with the Americans.
They chased the Liverpool Packet for over five hours, slowly gaining on the Nova Scotians, until the two ships collided.
The American privateers swarmed aboard, and after a short firefight on deck, Captain Bars surrendered.
The Liverpool Packet was soon renamed the Portsmouth Packet and went to sea with an American crew, but it was promptly recaptured by the Royal Navy and converted back into a British privateer.
Last episode, we covered the War at Sea, with a particular focus on the French Corsairs, a strange and colorful corner of the war where the forces of free enterprise met with the ancient codes of maritime combat.
Before we close the book on privateering, I should mention that this was not an entirely one-sided business.
There were British privateers as well as Frenchmen, Americans, and Scandinavians.
There were not as many of them, and they didn't play as prominent a role in the British war effort, and so they never really entered the public consciousness to the same degree as their counterparts on the other side.
British privateers mostly operated in the North Atlantic, preying on trade between the French Empire and the New World, primarily the United States.
He came from Nova Scotia in modern-day Canada and had been a mariner all his life.
He started his career as a privateer in the 1790s, mostly hunting American merchant ships headed for revolutionary France.
He seems to have had a talent for this business, quickly working his way up from junior officer to captain.
However, it wasn't until the War of 1812 that bars rose to international fame, or perhaps infamy.
When war broke out between Britain and the USA, Bars was in command of the Liverpool Packet, a small privateer schooner armed with five cannons, with a crew of about 45, sailing out of his hometown of Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
As we discussed last episode, privateers favored American-built ships, and the Liverpool Packet was no exception.
Captain Bars and the Liverpool Packet went on a hot streak in the fall of 1812, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, capturing seven American merchant vessels in under three months.
By early 1813, Bars and his crew had become so infamous that wealthy New England merchants began outfitting private warships, not for privateering, but with the sole aim of capturing or destroying the Liverpool Packet.
He blundered right into one of his American counterparts, the privateer schooner Thomas, out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The Thomas was the larger and slower ship, but the wind was with the Americans.
They chased the Liverpool Packet for over five hours, slowly gaining on the Nova Scotians, until the two ships collided.
The American privateers swarmed aboard, and after a short firefight on deck, Captain Bars surrendered.
The Liverpool Packet was soon renamed the Portsmouth Packet and went to sea with an American crew, but it was promptly recaptured by the Royal Navy and converted back into a British privateer.
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