The Prize Game: Lawful Looting on the High Seas in the Days of Fighting Sail - Hardcover

Petrie, Donald A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557506698 ISBN 13: 9781557506696

Publisher: Naval Inst Pr, 1999

Synopsis

In the Middle Ages, European nations raised standing armies to fight their foes. At sea, however, their resources were much more limited and largely dependent on privately owned vessels and their crews. To stimulate the growth and ardor of their fleets, the monarchs of Renaissance Europe offered the crews of their naval vessels and licensed privateers a chance to get rich by plundering enemy ships and cargoes. These actions gave rise to the doctrine and practice of maritime prize--a subject little studied but regularly referred to by C. S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian, and other popular writers about the era. Now, after a decade of research in European and American archives, Donald A. Petrie explains the origins of prize taking, the rules of the sea that became universally accepted among the maritime powers of the world, and the final decline of prize taking during the nineteenth century.

Most of the book is devoted to rollicking, never-before-published sea stories about this form of looting that helped define the last century of fighting sail. From the North Cape of Norway to the southern tip of Africa, from Charleston, South Carolina, to the East River of New York, these tales of high-seas adventure span a broad area and period. For readers fascinated by warfare in the days of sail, in both history and fiction, Petrie has unveiled the mysteries of prize taking in a manner that is highly readable yet thoroughly authentic. His book is the first such study to be published in this country since 1861.

About this title

About the Author

Donald A. Petrie has been a merchant seaman, soldier, lawyer, businessman, banker, politician, and publisher, and he is a lifelong small-boat sailor. He has published articles on prize taking in American Neptune and Log of the Mystic Seaport, which won best-essay awards. He lives in Wainscott, Long Island.

Review

An exciting and fascinating book, filled with gunnery duels, prize taking, and deception at sea. In the midst of all this the readers suddenly realize that they are also learning about the age of sail's international law of letters-of-marque, prizes, and captures from the expert in the field. -- Ira Dye, author of The Fatal Cruise of the Argus: Two Captains in the War of 1812

Donald Petrie's The Prize Game is readable and exciting, embodies extraordinary research, and has implications that reach far beyond the technical aspects of the law of privateering and naval prize. It reawakens our awareness of facts and rules familiar to our ancestors that influenced their behavior and thus ours. -- Alfred P. Rubin, Distinguished Professor of International Law, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and author of The Law of Piracy

Here, for the first time in 138 years, we have an intelligible account of the doctrine and practice of maritime prize by privateers and naval vessels. -- Virginia Steele Wood, author of Live Oaking: Southern Timber for Tall Ships

Not only an important history but as lively a sea story as any Forester fan could wish for. Broadsides and blockades, mutiny and piracy--you'll find them all here." -- Leonard F. Guttridge, author of Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection

This is one of those rare have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too books that manages to combine important scholarship and rip-roaring adventure in one easy-to-read package. For all its lawyerly precision, it manages to evoke the tang of salt spray and the whine of wind in the rigging with all the panache of a Forester or O'Brian. -- James Tertius de Kay Log of the Mystic Seaport

Edition details

• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557506698
• ISBN 13: 9781557506696
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 217