Pirates and Privateers of the Atlantic and the Caribbean is the most recent and broadest study of international privateering in the 18th and 19th centuries. It first examines ships themselves, which were privately financed and privately owned vessels designed, outfitted, and manned to locate, chase, capture, sink, or burn enemy ships under the auspices of a national or a local government. In addition to this, it also considers the officers and seamen aboard these ships, the investors who financed this legal trade, and the multi-racial makeup of some of their crews, as well as discussing the European and other women who played an indirect but nevertheless important role in privateering. Offering a worldwide sea-and-shore based coverage of the maritime, political, and economic reasons for privateering, it features privateers in the Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain; the vital role of France in this same war; privateers in the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain; privateers in the Carolinas and in the Caribbean; Latin American insurgent privateers; noted privateering figures; racial minorities and women associated with privateering; and naval gunnery in the age of sail.