Outfitting
... an outfitter had to supply the captain and crew with weapons and foodThe long periods of isolation that are part of seafaring forced ship-owners to ensure that privateer crews were self-sufficient. In addition to providing a vessel, an
outfitter had to supply the captain and crew with weapons and food. These were commonly called "ammunition and mouth ammunition."
Given the outfitters' hefty investment, they claimed a larger portion of whatever profits were to be made, if any. Indeed, the risk they took was a big one, for many privateering vessels came home empty handed. Others sank and never came home at all! To lessen the impact of luckless privateers, outfitters would join together to share the risk and the profit!
The Costs of Outfitting
Being the risky business that it was, privateering required substantial investment. The shipping contract for La Guyonne, equipped for privateering by its commander Jean La Fosse and by Sieur de Costebelle, Governor of Plaisance, Newfoundland, details the amounts each of them invested in 1708.
2957 livres, 13 sols, 8 deniers for Privateer Jean La Fosse
5915 livres, 7 sols, 4 deniers for Governor de Costebelle
ANQ-Q, TL5 D 422-20, 3/10/1708
To put these investments into perspective, the total is nearly equal to the proportion of the New France budget that went into the construction and repair of boats, as well as the maintenance of canoes in 1743. These expenses amount to 9,300 livres (Tournoise pounds) out of a total budget of 422,000 livres. That is 2% of the entire budget of New France for the year 1743 that went into funding a single privateer vessel!
Not all outfits were of this magnitude, however, since not all privateer captains were fortunate enough to have a governor outfitting them. Still, the fact remains that to invest in privateering and have a chance at making profits, a person had to be prepared to sustain heavy financial losses!
Difficult Outfitting
Outfitters sometimes had trouble recruiting crewmembers. Governors, too, struggled to convince outfitters to invest in privateering in light of the high cost and the great amount of risk involved.
To compensate for these difficulties, governors tried to help outfitters invest in privateering using various approaches.
For example, during the War of Austrian Succession (1744-1748), the President of the French Navy Council wrote to the Governor and the Intendant of the Colony, Messrs. de Beauharnois and Hocquart, in these terms:
The riches that the Canadians would find at Louisbourg, in terms of artillery, weapons and ammunition, [...] should prompt them [to become privateers]. Reward awaits privateers who dare.
LAC, MG1 Fonds des Colonies. Serial C11A. General correspondence, 31/03/1745