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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Brumar89 who wrote (690394)12/27/2012 10:13:42 PM
From: Bilow2 Recommendations  Read Replies (4) of 1572172
 
Hi all; One thing that I don't think is appreciated is that the founding fathers expected citizens to possess high powered weapons. That is, weapons far more powerful than the muzzle loaders we think of as representing the private ownership of weapons at that time.

During the revolution and again during the war of 1812, the vast majority of US sea power was privately owned. These were the "privateers". They were responsible for the vast majority of British ship losses. The United States Merchant Marine keeps a web page with the statistics that show that this is true. For example, enemy ships captured by the US Navy: 254, by privateers: 1300.
usmm.org

Here's a typical exciting story of a privateer capturing the HMS St. Lawrence:
1812privateers.org

Ships were armed with cannon. On privateers, these were privately owned cannons and there was some competition between private owners and the government over the purchase of cannon. A privateer's broad side (when they fire off all the cannon on one side of the ship, for example, the "right" side) would involve as many as 9 guns (or a total of 18 guns for the whole ship). This is smaller than, for example, the USS Constitution which is "rated" 44 guns, but the large numbers of privateers meant that they were the most damaging to the British fleet.

By the way, the US constitution still allows the creation of privateers. Congress has the right: "To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;"
usconstitution.net

-- Carl
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