With no easily accessible outlet to fence their stolen goods, pirates were reduced to a subsistence livelihood, and following almost a century of naval warfare between the British, French and Spanish—during which sailors could find easy employment—lone privateers found themselves outnumbered by the powerful ships employed by the British Empire to defend its merchant fleets.
Sen unha saída doadamente accesible para os bens roubados, os piratas víronse reducidos a un modo de vida de subsistencia, e tras case cen anos de guerra naval entre os británicos, franceses e españois, nos que os mariñeiros podían atopar traballo doadamente, os corsarios víronse superados en número polos meirandes navíos empregados polo Imperio Británico para defender a súa frota mercante.