"These presents shall also serve as the letters of marque needed for your employment as a privateer..."
-John Sanders, The Hat Of Authority (London, 1966), 1, pp. 16-17.
Readers of both Poul Anderson's The Star Fox and of SM Stirling's On The Oceans Of Eternity are familiar with letters of marque and therefore also with privateers. See here.
"Even Rupert, the arch-enemy, had won greater fame at sea than he had on land."
-op. cit, p. 17.
Readers of Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest are familiar with Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who was also a privateer.
Nowadays I value other authors insofar as they are able to contribute to blog comparisons with Poul Anderson. Sanders meets the mark.
Colonel-at-Sea?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, as you said, I'm familiar with "letters of marque and reprisal" from reading Anderson's THE STAR FOX. Incidentally, since she was not a signatory to the Convention by which the other major powers agreed to renounce them, the US can still legally issue letters of marque and reprisal, if the Washington gov't so chooses.
I will look up John Sanders, but I continue to regard the Puritans and Roundheads icily. Cromwell's massacres in Ireland and his anti-Catholic bigotry forever disgraces and discredits him. And, of course, many English/British still loath him as well because of his role in the death of Charles I and the dictatorship he set up.
Ad astra! Sean
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