Back when sailors could make a fortune

The Russian invasion of Ukraine may give professional sailors a new income stream as Arthur Christopher Bulger explains:

The joke that best describes sailing today goes, “What’s the best way to make a small fortune in sailing? Start with a large one!” But this wasn’t always the case. Back when sailing ships ruled the seas and decided national security and prosperity, the best way to make a fortune was to captain a ship in war time.

The great navies of the UK, Dutch, and French ran on a kind of economics that looked like the Silicon Valley venture capitalists of today. The economic carrot – Captains and their crews could keep a portion of any military or private enemy ship they captured. Captain’s portions were significant enough to create the Jeff Bezos of their day.

But the problem was that naval ships were systemically undersupplied with sailors, general supplies, and most importantly ammunition. The bet Captains made was deciding how much of their own money to spend on extra ammunition to ensure their crews would be ready to capture any enemy.

With such an effective capitalist incentive structure in place to secure security and prosperity, why would any nation limit itself to only available naval vessels? Why not give private citizens an opportunity to capture and defeat the enemy?

Hence the laws called “Letter of Marque and Reprisal” which gives a government the right to grant a private ship the authority to sink or seize vessels of the enemy. The good news is it increased our active naval fleet without more government spending, but these Letters of Marque are kind of like pirates and a little tough to control – like Bezos.

From time to time nations acknowledged that licensed pirates did more harm than good and treaties were signed to ban the practice – most recently the Paris Declaration of 1876. The US declined to sign, so now the US is again playing with the idea of issuing Letters or Marque to allow private vessels to seize or destroy Russian vessels.

While it will be interesting to see if any are in fact issued and if there is any action on the high seas. I’m afraid today’s most effective are sitting behind laptops and doing more damage to Russia by seizing financial and digital assets. Not the stuff that makes for the romantic imagery of the days of sail.

As a footnote – reflecting on sailing’s key role in security and prosperity helps us understand the original significance of the America’s Cup. Sailing was not just a pastime for the wealthy – it was what put food on the table and kept invaders away. No wonder when an American Schooner put all the UK’s best to shame it was the biggest media event of the day.