Saint-Malo, the self styled Corsair City. It is no idle boast. The taking of English maritime prizes brought great wealth to the privateers of the port.
Surcouf was the most successful of them all. His statue stands high upon the ramparts. Boulevards are named after him. Here, his arm is outflung toward Angleterre. The source of his wealth.
"You French fight merely for gold. We British fight for honour" sneers a hapless English captain.Victim to Surcouf. Only to be further humiliated, by the buccaneer's rapier-like riposte:
"We fight for what we do not already possess." Runs an apocryphal tale.
The seizure of foreign flagged ships was seen, on both sides of La Manche, as well as further afield, as a legitimate source of income. During the Napoleonic wars and the great age of sail.
The walled city of Saint-Malo, proved a perfect base, from which to conduct such bloodthirsty business. With its outer ring of defensive reefs; and, beyond them, ready access to the lucrative shipping lanes, of the Channel, North Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
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