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Letter of marque quiz

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Did you know ...

• in 1814, the American privateer Syren captured HMS Landrail, and that in 1896, her namesake, the torpedo gunboat HMS Landrail, rammed and sank the four-masted clipper Siren?
• in 1709, a privateering force, of which Acadian military officer Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin was a member, sank 35 British ships and took 470 people prisoner?
• in the first naval engagement of the War of 1812, the American privateer Dash captured HMS Whiting but the US released her, telling her captain to leave American waters as soon as possible?
• one of Kentucky's first two judges, James John Floyd, was once a privateer?
• the Royal Navy sloop HMS Beagle captured three French privateers during her ten years of service?
• despite having only 28 men to his opponent's 92, William Rogers (pictured) not only defended his ship from a privateer, but boarded and captured her with just five men?
• despite being armed en flûte as a troopship, HMS Wilhelmina still engaged and drove off a more heavily armed privateer to protect the merchant she was escorting?
• HMS Spitfire captured at least nine French privateers and small naval vessels during a four year period under the command of Michael Seymour?
• Joost van Dyk, a 17th century Dutch privateer and occasional pirate and slaver, established the first permanent European settlements in the British Virgin Islands?
• George Collier (pictured) was shipwrecked, rescued, and then taken prisoner when his rescuer was captured by a privateer?
• after exhausting his shot fighting a privateer for two days, Commander Hugh Downman of HMS Speedy was reduced to firing nails at his opponent?
• 16th-century noblewoman Marguerite de La Rocque was marooned on an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence by her relative, the privateer de Roberval, as punishment for an affair?