I have already quoted George Washington's objections to the practise during the Revolution.

During the War of 1812, some of our best frigates were compelled to sail half manned, while it is even declared that the loss of the "Chesapeake" to the "Shannon" was largely due to the fact that her crew were discontented and preparing, as their time of service was nearly up, to quit the Government service for privateering.

In a history of Marblehead, one of the famous old seafaring towns of Massachusetts, it is declared that of nine hundred men of that town who took part in the war, fifty-seven served in the army, one hundred and twenty entered the navy, while seven hundred and twenty-six shipped on the privateers.

These figures afford a fair indication of the way in which the regular branches of the service suffered by the competition of the system of legalized piracy.
**Transcriber's Notes: Page 180: Punctuation in diary normalized.
Page 184: change Washingon to Washington Page 185: changed dicover to discover Page 186: changed Portugese to Portuguese.