Historians and armchair adventurers will enjoy this collection of true stories of privateering incidents and heroes, taken mostly from the eighteenth century. Privateers, originally known as "private men-of-war," have frequently been confused with pirates, but unlike pirates, privateers were licensed plunderers. Privateers were valuable auxiliaries to the Navy, although, in the absence of legitimate prey, privateers would sometimes adopt the tactics the pirates. "The privateersman, scouring the seas in his swift, rakish craft, plundering the merchant vessels of the enemy, and occasionally...