Privateer: Did you mean...?

A painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris showing the Scottish privateer turned pirate Captain Kidd (c. 1645-1701) in New York harbour. William Kidd was found guilty of piracy and hanged in 1701. (Library of Congress)

A 19th-century portrait of the Franco-American pirate and privateer Jean Lafitte (c. 1780 - c. 1821). (Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas)

A c. 1581 CE portrait by Nicholas Hilliard of the English mariner, privateer and explorer Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540-1596 CE).

Luke Roberts as Woodes Rogers in the TV series Black Sails. Rogers (l. 1679-1732) was a former privateer and navigator who served twice as the governor of the Bahamas. He was charged with stamping out piracy in the area and particularly the...

A c. 1620 CE portrait of the Elizabethan mariner and privateer Thomas Cavendish (1560-1592 CE). Cavendish famously circumnavigated the globe in 1586-88 CE, only the third such voyage at that point. (National Portrait Gallery, London)

A c. 1850 painting by Ambroise Louis Garneray showing the 1800 battle between the Confiance captained by the French privateer Robert Surcouf and the Kent. (Musée d'Histoire de Saint-Malo, France)

A 17th-century illustration of the pirate and privateer Olivier van Noort who was the first Dutchman to circumnavigate the globe (1598-1601). (From a 1926 edition of Around the World by Olivier van Noort 1598-1601, Volume I. by Dr. J.W. Ironman...

Portrait of William Dampier (1651-1715 CE), English explorer, naturalist, and privateer. Painted c. 1697-1698 CE by Thomas Murray (1663-1734 CE).

A 17th-century illustration of the Dutch privateer and pirate Roche Brasiliano (active 1650s to 1660s). From an early edition of Alexander Exquemelin’s Buccaneers of America, first published in Dutch in 1678.

A late-19th century cigarette card showing the Scottish privateer turned pirate Captain Kidd (c. 1645-1701) burying his treasure. William Kidd was found guilty of piracy and hanged in 1701. Produced by Allen & Ginter. Lithographer: George...