Privateer Days at Liverpool Nova Scotia - Liverpool, CA

We’re back for 2025! Visit Liverpool to celebrate the South Shore’s history!

Take a step back into the year of 1780 where the Privateers were upon Nova Scotia raiding ships from other countries at the direction of the government. After the American Revolution, American privateer ships ranged up and down Nova Scotia’s South Shore, ambushing merchant shipments, disrupting commerce, and occasionally stealing ships right out of Liverpool’s wharves. Desperate to defend their homes, their families, and their livelihoods, many leading citizens of the Town of Liverpool petitioned the British government for the right to retaliate against these ocean raiders. These citizens were later granted authorization to launch privateer ships of their own. Liverpool quickly emerged as one of British North America’s leading privateer ports, eventually deploying more privateer vessels than even the much larger city of Halifax. Ships like the Lucy, the Rover, and the Liverpool Packet gained international renown for their workmanship and speed, and the prowess of their crews inspired respect and fear. Although privateers no longer roam the seas, and the day of the great sailing ships has passed, Liverpool’s significance in maritime history lives on in the town’s nickname to this day: PORT OF THE PRIVATEERS.