Context: A privateer was a private person or ship that engaged in maritime warfare under a commission of war. The commission, also known as a letter of marque, empowered the person to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war, including attacking foreign vessels during wartime and taking them as prizes. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided between the privateer sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission. Since robbery under arms was common to seaborne trade, all merchant ships were already armed. During war, naval resources were auxiliary to operations on land so privateering was a way of subsidizing state power by mobilizing armed ships and sailors., The first USS Hornet was a merchant sloop chartered from Captain William Stone in December 1775 to serve under Stone as a unit of Esek Hopkins ' Fleet . Hornet fitted out at Baltimore , then sailed with Hopkins fleet 18 February 1776 . Outside the Virginia Capes , she ran afoul of USS Fly and was unable to accompany the fleet for the amphibious assault on New Providence . She patrolled in the Delaware Bay for nearly a year , then ran the British blockade to convoy merchantmen to Charleston . Documents of service are incomplete after this time but it appears that Hornet fell into British hands on the coast of South Carolina in the summer of 1777 ., Aft, in naval terminology, is an adjective or adverb meaning, "towards the stern (rear) of the ship", when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?", The Continental Navy was the navy of the United States during the American Revolutionary War, and was formed in 1775. The fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial through the efforts of the Continental Navy's patron John Adams and vigorous Congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, when considering the limitations imposed upon the Patriot supply pool., A fore-and-aft rig is a sailing rig consisting mainly of sails that are set along the line of the keel rather than perpendicular to it. Such sails are described as fore-and-aft rigged., A sloop (from Dutch "sloep", in turn from French "chaloupe") is a sailing boat with a single mast and a fore-and-aft rig. A sloop has only one head-sail: if a vessel has two or more head-sails, the term 'cutter' is used, and its mast may be set further aft than on a sloop. , Commodore Esek Hopkins (April 26, 1718  February 26, 1802) was the only Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. He was also an accomplished merchant captain and privateer., The American Revolutionary War (17751783), also referred to as the American War of Independence and the Revolutionary War in the United States, was an armed conflict between Great Britain and thirteen of its North American colonies that after onset of the war declared independence as the United States of America., Subject: uss hornet , Relation: instance_of, Options: (A) adjective (B) april (C) commander (D) conflict (E) cutter (F) february (G) fleet (H) head (I) line (J) merchant (K) navy (L) person (M) privateer (N) prize (O) reference (P) revolutionary (Q) rig (R) sea (S) ship (T) sloop (U) terminology (V) trade (W) war (X) war of independence
Output: ship