An important part of eighteenth-century maritime conflict involved the destruction of enemy commerce and the protection of home trade. In performing these tasks, state navies were augmented by privateers, vessels owned, equipped and manned by private individuals authorised by their governments to attack and seize the enemy's seabourne property. For their reward, the investors and seafarers engaged in privateering ventures shared in the proceeds of any ships and goods taken and condemned as lawful prize. Privateering therefore represented a business opportunity to the maritime community, a...

Those travelling on the seas have always been vulnerable to the attacks of predators acting within or outside the law. In the 18th and 19th centuries such assaults reached new heights as the development of trans-oceanic empires led to an increase in the wealth and extent of sea-borne trade, and with it the potential for prize-taking.

Exploiting the Sea offers new perspectives on Britain's vital but changing relationship with the sea since the late nineteenth century. It assesses the significance to the British economy of sea-reliant industries such as shipping, shipbuilding, fishing, coastal trading and seaside tourism. It also seeks to explain why the clear pre-eminence that Britain established in the maritime world during the Victorian era has not been sustained in the twentieth century. Exploiting the Sea is a new volume in the highly successful series Exeter Maritime Studies, and brings together contributions from...