Credit for America’s success in winning the War of 1812 belongs in part to the many privateers who signed on to do battle against the might of England.
According to Falconer’s Dictionary of the Marine (1768), “Privateers are vessels of war armed and equipped by particular merchants, and furnished with commissions from the State to cruise against and annoy the enemy by taking, sinking, or burning their shipping.” The commission, authorized by a letter-of-marque, empowered merchants to appropriate to their own use whatever prize (actual capture of a vessel) they made, as well as receive monetary allowance for each prisoner taken.
While on the whole the privateers, as irregular forces, were certainly no match for the the British regular cruisers, they inflicted enormous damage on the foe. Among four of the privateers that were most creditable was the speedy brigantine Prince de Neufchatel captained by J. Ordronaux of New York. A superbly built vessel of 310 tons, she mounted 18 guns and originally possessed a crew of 150 men. Prince de Neufchatel was supposedly built by Christian Bergh at New York in 1812-13 and was named for Berthier, one of Napoleon’s marshalls of the period. One of the larger privateers. She measured 107’ 6” at the waterline, and possessed a speed equal to design speeds of clipper ships built 40 years later. Because she had a size and shape that could attain high speeds and hold more firepower, her shape was given to a whole fleet of opium clippers. Armament for the privateers was usually sixteen 12-pounder carronades and two long 18’s as chase guns. All were carriage mounted to allow more positioning freedom, and to accommodate the higher bulwarks found on the privateers
