Existing comment:
Turbulent Inhabitants:
Baltimoreans embraced war, especially in the city's shipbuilding center at Fell's Point (see map, below). Local captains and investors eventually outfitted nearly 130 privateers and blockade runners -- armed vessels with letters-of-marque commissions allowing them to seize enemy ships.
Manned by white and black seaman [sic], Baltimore schooners like Rossie, Comet and Chasseur cruised the Caribbean, North Atlantic and British Isles seizing merchant ships and battling the Royal Navy. |