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At the edge of permission.
The same sea connected commissioned privateers, merchant companies, naval officers and pirates. Documents and institutions shaped what people could claim to be doing—and how their opponents responded.
Guides in this topic.
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Taking a ship was not the same as condemning a prize
Kidd’s commission describes a process between capture and lawful disposal.
Wanted notices for Every: names, coins and a changing search
Three 1696 proclamations show intelligence being updated and distributed across jurisdictions.
A committee aboard: who decided a privateering voyage?
Rogers’s journal records written decisions on routes, supplies, people and prizes.
Private plunder and a common account
A prize could be profitable and still generate a dispute over the objects people carried away.
Logwood: the valuable cargo that kept peace unsettled
A dye-producing wood connected former privateers, Jamaican merchants and Spanish territorial claims.
How the Spanish treasure fleets connected an ocean
The flota and galeones joined guarded shipping to ports, couriers, fairs and inland transport.
Portobello’s fair: where the ocean routes met the mule road
For a short trading season, a small Caribbean port became a crowded exchange between two seas.
Smuggling in the Spanish Caribbean: commerce beyond the authorized routes
Foreign goods, local demand and uneven enforcement connected illicit trade to the same waters used by raiders.
Where did buccaneers come from?
The name leads inland to hunters, smoked meat and the connected settlements of Hispaniola and Tortuga.
The Treaty of Madrid in 1670: peace had to reach the ports
Recognition of English possessions did not mean unrestricted trade or the instant disappearance of raiding.
A royal pardon was an offer with dates and conditions
Surrender, past offenses and later behavior were separate questions in the campaign to suppress piracy.
How did a captive try to prove he was a forced man?
The reported proceedings examine work, weapons, escape attempts and testimony—not merely a name on a crew list.
How were pirate companies found?
Surviving vessels, local reports and predictable supply stops connected an encounter at sea to a pursuit.
What did a privateering commission actually authorize?
Permission was a document with a context, not a permanent identity or a blanket excuse.