Robert Surcouf in the context of "Letter of marque"

A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes and taking crews prisoner for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission (i.e. the sovereign). Most colonial powers, as well as other countries, engaged in privateering.

Privateering allowed sovereigns to augment their naval forces at relatively low cost by mobilizing privately owned armed ships and sailors to supplement state power. For participants, privateering provided the potential for a greater income and profit than obtainable as a merchant seafarer or fisher while avoiding the dangers associated with outright piracy. However, the line between privateers and pirates was not always clear.

Corsairs (French: corsaire) were privateers, authorised to conduct raids on shipping of a foreign state at war with the Kingdom of France, on behalf of the French crown. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the corsair captain entitled to a portion of the proceeds. Although not French Navy personnel, corsairs were considered legitimate combatants in France (and allied nations), provided the commanding officer of the vessel was in possession of a valid letter of marque (lettre de marque or lettre de course, the latter giving corsairs their name), and the officers and crew conducted themselves according to contemporary admiralty law. By acting on behalf of the French Crown, if captured by the enemy, they could in principle claim treatment as prisoners of war, instead of being considered pirates.

Because corsairs gained a swashbuckling reputation, the word "corsair" is also used generically as a more romantic or flamboyant way of referring to privateers, or even to pirates. The Barbary pirates of North Africa as well as the Ottoman Empire were sometimes called "Turkish corsairs".

Kent, launched in 1799, was an East Indiaman of the British East India Company. On her first voyage in 1800, she was on her way to Bengal and Bencoolen when the French privateer Robert Surcouf captured her near the mouth of the Ganges.

Confiance, launched in 1797, was a privateer corvette from Bordeaux, famous for being Robert Surcouf's ship during the capture of the British East India Company's East Indiaman Kent. Confiance had captured a number of ships through the years before the British Royal Navy captured her in 1805, taking her into service under her existing name. The Royal Navy sold her in 1810, by which time she had taken part in two notable actions in British service. Confiance then sailed as a merchantman, until 1816.

Ambroise Louis Garneray (19 February 1783 – 11 September 1857) was a French corsair, painter and writer. He served under Robert Surcouf and Jean-Marie Dutertre, and was held as prisoner-of-war aboard Royal Navy prison hulks for eight years before being captured and repatriated at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, continuing his career as a painter until his death in 1857.

Émilie a French corvette-built privateer based in Île de France (now Mauritius). She is mostly known as one of the ships captained by Robert Surcouf.

In early 1795 she was renamed to Émilie. She was then under command of young Robert Surcouf and was armed with only four 6-pounders cruising from August 1795; in January 1796, after she had captured Cartier, Surcouf transferred to his prize, leaving Émilie in command of Jean Croizet. (more details at Robert Surcouf#Cruise of Émilie and capture of Triton). She returned to Mauritius in March 1796 and was renamed Modeste again. In August 1796, armed with 20 guns, she cruised under Claude Deschiens, who died in battle on 10 September 1796; command passed to Jean-Marie Dutertre and she returned to Isle de France in June 1797. Dutertre went on another cruise from late 1797 or early 1798, and sailed until April 1798 (again with 20 guns). Her fate is murky: in March 1797 the 32-gun HMS Fox captured Émilie near Visakhapatnam, but then in April 1798 the 32-gun HMS Cleopatra also captured an Émilie.

Triton was launched in 1787, as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made three full voyages for the EIC before the French privateer Robert Surcouf captured her in 1796, while she was on her fourth voyage. She returned to British ownership shortly thereafter and the EIC chartered her for three more voyages to Britain. She was based at Calcutta and was last listed in 1809.

Isle de France (Modern French: Île de France, pronounced [il də fʁɑ̃s] ) was a French colony in the Indian Ocean from 1715 to 1810, comprising the island now known as Mauritius and its dependent territories. It was governed by the French East India Company and formed part of the French colonial empire. Under the French, the island witnessed major changes. The increasing importance of agriculture led to the "import" of slaves and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed the capital Port Louis into a major port, warehousing, and commercial centre.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Isle de France became a base from which the French navy, including squadrons under Rear Admiral Linois or Commodore Jacques Hamelin, and corsairs such as Robert Surcouf, organised raids on British merchant ships. The raids (see Battle of Pulo Aura and Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811) continued until 1810 when the British sent a strong expedition to capture the island. The first British attempt, in August 1810, to attack Grand Port resulted in a French victory, one celebrated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. A subsequent and much larger attack launched in December of the same year from Rodrigues, which had been captured a year earlier, was successful. The British landed in large numbers in the north of the island and rapidly overpowered the French, who capitulated (see Invasion of Isle de France). In the Treaty of Paris (1814), the French ceded Isle de France together with its territories including Agaléga, the Cargados Carajos Shoals, the Chagos Archipelago, Rodrigues, Seychelles, and Tromelin Island to the United Kingdom. The island then reverted to its former name, 'Mauritius'.