As the war progressed, with no hope of joining the rebellion due to power of the Royal Navy (in the letter he had addressed to Bermudians soliciting the theft of the gunpowder, George Washington had written We would not wish to in volve you in an Opposition, in which from your Situation, we should be unable to support you: – We knew not therefore to what Extent to sollicit your Assistance in availing ourselves of this Supply), with increasing numbers of American loyalists in Bermuda (such as the privateer Bridger Goodrich), and with their economic opportunities dwindling, Bermudians overcame their sympathies for their erstwhile countrymen and unleashed their privateers (which, by the middle of the 18th century already outnumbered those of any of the mainland colonies) upon American shipping. The Bermudian effectiveness was such that, when the US sued British privateers for wrongful seizures in British courts, following the war, a sizable part of the damages they were awarded were to have come from Bermudians, like Hezekiah Frith (although, with the local authorities tasked with collecting these damages being in sympathy with the defendants, most of these damages were never paid).