the glorious cause of their country and make their fortunes."
Many a ship's company was mustered between noon and sunset,
including men who had served in armed merchantmen and who in
times of nominal peace had fought the marauders of Europe or
whipped the corsairs of Barbary in the Strait of Gibraltar. Never
was a race of seamen so admirably fitted for the daring trade of
privateering as the crews of these tall sloops, topsail
schooners, and smart square-riggers, their sides checkered with
gun-ports, and ready to drive to sea like hawks.

In some instances the assurance of these hardy men was both
absurd and sublime. Ramshackle boats with twenty or thirty men
aboard, mounting one or two old guns, sallied out in the
expectation of gold and glory, only to be captured by the first
British cruiser that chanced to sight them. A few even sailed
with no cannon at all, confident of taking them out of the first
prize overhauled by laying alongside--and so in some cases they
actually did.

The privateersmen of the Revolution played a larger part in
winning the war than has been commonly recognized. This fact,
however, was clearly perceived by Englishmen of that era, as "The
London Spectator" candidly admitted: "The books at Lloyds will
recount it, and the rate of assurances at that time will prove
what their diminutive strength was able to effect in the face of
our navy, and that when nearly one hundred pennants were flying
on our coast. Were we able to prevent their going in and out, or
stop them from taking our trade and our storeships even in sight
of our garrisons? Besides, were they not in the English and Irish
Channels, picking up our homeward bound trade, sending their