In the first year of the Civil War War, the Confederacy had no navy. This caused President Jefferson Davis to take an unusual strategic step. He licensed private ships (called privateers) to sail the Confederate coastline and capture Union merchant ships and their cargos, distracting the Union's warships from their blockading efforts and disrupting the North's merchant fleet.

It was a swashbuckling time of legal piracy, ocean battles, death trials, and a brilliant, life-saving negotiation by Jefferson Davis.

Find the historic story here.