The importance of privateering was a lot more relevant in a study of the American Revolution than I ever realized. It's not what teachers tell their students in most classroom history classes, that is for certain.

It turns out George Washington didn't win the war single-handedly after all.

And, ironically enough, the British -- who used privateering against their foes in a great many conflicts during the Age of Sail (including against the Americans during the Revolution) -- were hoisted by their own petard.

Eric Jay Dolin, a historian of some note, focuses his attention on privateers and privateersmen in Rebels at Sea. With thorough research and an easy-to-read, conversational style of sharing the facts, Dolin makes the topic unexpectedly interesting.

He explains the differences between pirates and privateers and details the shipboard life of the men who took to sea in search of British prizes. He explains how Massachusetts led the way in giving legitimacy to letters of marque, how most of the other colonies followed suit, how George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other Founding Fathers stoked the fires, and how the Continental Congress slowly came around to see their point of view.

Readers will also learn how seamen and investors alike could profit from the venture, and how their potential profit -- or loss -- differed from that of the fledgling colonial navy. In fact, the practice was hugely beneficial to the new nation's economy, and it also made the fortunes of a great many men.

While it might be natural to assume the benefits of privateering were largely financial -- the cost to England and its people through the loss of ships, officers, sailors and valuable cargos, as well as the skyrocketing price of insurance for those vessels -- it turns out there were diplomatic rewards as well. As Dolin explains:

...Privateering, while not causing a sharp turn in American fortunes on its own, helped create the situation in which a great American victory could prove decisive in bringing France into the conflict. (p. 108)

Dolin also examines the risks of the job and exposes the horrible fate of privateersmen who were captured by the British -- who, since they did not view America as a sovereign nation, believed privateersmen were traitors and pirates. They treated them as such, often locking them away in squalid prison hulks where thousands of men died; according to estimates, while about 6,800 Americans died on the battlefield during the war, nearly twice as many men died in that period on British prison ships. Dolin also looks at instances where privateers took advantage of the war to plunder allies rather than foes.

Franklin was a great advocate of privateering, and he spent much time in France encouraging its practice while doing his best to pit France and England against each other. After the war was won, however, Franklin changed his mind and, although he was not successful in his lifetime, the U.S. eventually (after using it on both sides of the American Civil War) joined a global movement to ban privateering in times of war.

Rebels at Sea is a hugely informative book that is genuinely enjoyable to read. Dolin spices up his narrative with plenty of contemporary accounts and anecdotes of the privateers' adventures at sea, plus plenty of illustrations from the era, and anyone who likes stories of ship-to-ship action and early American history should definitely add this to their to-read list.