Brief

The inspiration for this piece stems from a life-long love of history, beginning in my childhood reading about buccaneers, privateers, and the Spanish Main. The images of pirates first came to mind in novels, but I became a great admirer of Howard Pyle, the American illustrator and author, whose illustration of Captain Keitt in the Book of Pirates inspired this composition. Pyle is generally considered responsible for the contemporary stereotypical image of what pirates looked like.

This bronze depicts a privateer and Captain overlooking his crew before boarding a prize ship. Privateers had a lot to do with early American History. I hope one day to sculpt Jean Lafitte, the privateer who helped Gen. Jackson defeat the British at the battle of New Orleans.This privateer anticipates the coming fray as the deck pitches back and forth, wielding two flintlock pistols, a cutlass, and a plug bayonet. If you look closely, his tattoos catalog the various places fortune, fate, and circumstance led him.

Although privateers were often called pirates, in reality they were an unofficial navy because they had a legal mandate. Consequently, whether or not an individual was labeled a pirate depended on perspective; for example, if your ship was taken – the privateer was a pirate. Nevertheless, the term privateer could represent the captain, owner of the ship, the crew, or the vessel itself. Typically, privateers were authorized during war by a government or leader of a country, or they were established by a private entity such as a trading company. Most privateers had orders to capture or destroy vessels of enemy nations and seize their valuables. A privateer established by a government was authorized by letters of marque.However, regardless of the legal status of any given privateer, to their victims, a privateer was merely a common pirate, which is why oftentimes captured privateers were prosecuted and sentenced for committing the act of piracy.

Privateers were most active between the 16th and 18th centuries when European nations grappled for dominance of the New World. During this period, many famous commanders like Sir Francis Drake, Sir Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte, and Kanhoji Angria forged reputations became celebrated heroes of their nations as the privateers. Privateers lasted until the 1856 when the Declaration of Paris abolished privateers and established a framework of international maritime law, which extends into the 21^st century.