[April 3, 2016] After one year in the American War of Independence with Britain, on April 3, 1776, the Continental Congress authorized private commercial ships, known as privateers, to attack British ships. The war was to last another seven years but one of the best strategic decisions of that Congress was this authorization. British vessels were harassed throughout the war and helped turn the tide to the American side despite the tremendous strength of the British Navy.
When we speak of well-known strategies, President Abraham Lincoln’s executive order changing the federal legal status of enslaved persons in the U.S. South from “slave” to “free” was one of the greatest. Called the Emancipation Proclamation it changed the U.S. Civil War from one of political differences to one of moral superiority for the North. Likewise Congress’s approval of privateers to legally engage in combat with British ships (with some exceptions).
The authorization allowed those privateers to act on behalf of the American Continental Congress and to divide the goods captured between the privateer and the government. In a bill signed by John Hancock on this date in 1776, he issued instructions to the commanders of private ships called Commissions of Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Holders of such Letters were not subject to prosecution by their home nation and treated as prisoners of war if captured.
YOU may, by Force of Arms, attack, subdue, and take all Ships and other Vessels belonging to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, on the high seas, or between high-water and low-water Marks, except Ships and Vessels bringing Persons who intend to settle and reside in the United Colonies, or bringing Arms, Ammunition or Warlike Stores to the said Colonies, for the Use of such Inhabitants thereof as are Friends to the American Cause, which you shall suffer to pass unmolested, the Commanders thereof permitting a peaceable Search, and giving satisfactory Information of the Contents of the Ladings, and Destinations of the Voyages.1
Only after the American War of Independence did the Congress give accounting to founding the American Navy. The impetus for it was a lack of funds to build a navy before the war. This was addressed fully in Ian W. Toll’s book Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy and my review can be found here (see link).
Senior leadership means having a well-developed strategy to accomplish what you’ve set out to do. In this case, the American congress adopted a strategy that led to the defeat of the British and victory in their War of Independence.
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