Built in 1796, the English Brig “Portsmouth” was a typical exampleof a commercial unit adapted for privateering. At that time several nations recognized and supported the privateering activity and legalized it with the so-called “mark-letters” or “reprisal-letters” granted to anyone who was able, privately, to arm a vessel and to recruit a crew .confirmed by some American studies, speaking of a French lugger with 31 hands, moored at Santo Domingo in 1782.
