RE: Letters of marque

All this talk of pirates aside, I have to point out that Nations of a 
certain size and larger guard their commerce with a vengance. Piracy 
only occurs now days on a really small scale since anywhere you can 
send a merchant, you can send a warship and trained crew. Pirates 
work in small numbers in the Carribean,  the Eastern Indian and in 
some parts of south east asia. When they start affecting larger ships 
and making a name for themselves, they loose really bad really fast 
when a Frigate rolls up and blows them out of the water.

Worse is when they come across larger ships that don't appear able to 
defend themselves and yet are able to. Most nations are pretty hot 
about people fishing in their waters with out license, imagine how 
bad they are about pirates.

If a pirate force gets big enough to make a name, they are likely 
very, very far away or living on a very short amount of borrowed time 
until a major or moderate power takes notice and they roll across a 
task force.

The sheer amount of training, resources, intel and other assets that 
a naval power can exert will far exceed any pirate's ability to 
combat. They survive as pirates by attacking and robbing people who 
won't be missed. That's refugees and poor nations.
--
Ryan Gill	  |	   |	     rmgill@mindspring.com
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