Barrett's Privateers

Stan Rogers sang Barrett's Privateers in 1976, and there's a story behind the song.

As told by the only survivor:

In 1778, the King of England sent mostly fishermen to a guy named Elcid Barrett on a ship named the sloop named The Antelope to raid US merchant ships in the Caribbean, but the Antelope was a really run-down sloop. It did not go well at all.

Extending the story with other stories I found:

It was not the only raider, and Halifax Harbor would take the King's tax from the raiders, then would resell the goods to British and European merchants for a profit. So for a while, Canada taxed pirates that were rebranded as privateers because piracy was a hanging offense, and they needed a legal name for it.

Looking at historic sources:

In reality there was a rather large pirate problem in the East coast of Canada in those days. I can’t find any direct evidence to support the story of Halifax harbor being where the Kings Privateers ran out of, or that they existed at all. There are only blog posts, and many stories of it happening. I’m sure in a Halifax pub in those days, there may have been tails that persisted to today, but there is no evidence it happened. British Privateers did in fact exist but there is a low likelihood they were taxed by Canadian agents for the King as such.

Side note:

There is a possibility that they did run out of Halifax but they would operate as normal trade as they had letters from the King back in the day to do so. It would not be known at all that they were Privateers to the harbor officials. Trade was common in the harbor and still is today.

Song Lyrics .:HERE:.

Deep Dream Generator Prompt for the image, "Barrett's Privateers in 1778"

*Extra:

Stan Rogers was immortalized for his contribution to Canadian Folk Music with a stamp with his image on it as he plays a song.

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