RE: Letters of marque

It depends on how you sell stuff.  For high value items, ransoming might
be the standard method for recovering items.  And if it is, it makes
more sense for the captain of ship that is outgunned to simply give up,
pay the ransom (or the insurance company will pay the ransom), and be on
his way, ship intact.

If this doesn't sound reasonable, look at the way we (until recently)
taught airline pilots to handle hijackings - stay calm, give in to the
hijackers demands and let negotiators make a deal so that everyone gets
away without injury, as long as the hostages remain unhurt.

If you have a letter of marque, and there isn't a hot war going on, I
can see diplomatic lines being used to trade captured merchants, liners
and crews back and forth.  Capturing a warship might be cause for going
hot though.

Mercs might be used to capture sensor outposts, outlying supply depots
or hijacking supply freighters.  As long as you didn't escalate the
tensions by slaughtering crew or indiscriminate destruction of property
(i.e. you don't raze the nearby civilian town after capturing the depot)
it would be more of a "cold or luke-warm" war type situation.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: K.H.Ranitzsch [mailto:KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de]
> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 11:57 PM
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: Re: Letters of marque

<<SNIP>>
> 
> I have a bit of problem with pirates, letters of marques and 
> privateers in
> space. Historically, pirates and privateers financed their business by
> selling their booty and prizes. This requires that you capture them
> reasonably intact. You either get your victim to surrender at 
> the first shot
> or you have to use boarding actions. The chances in space for 
> either of
> these to happen successfully seem a bit slim to me.
> 
> Greetings
> Karl Heinz