My point is that they can choose to exercise territorial control for ships that extends fairly far away from the coastline If the government of the United states want to freeze those assets, and they are located anyway near the US, they can just send out coast guards/military escorts and force them into harbor. No need to arm private citizens with letters of marque.
The US did not ratify UNCLOS:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_the_United_N...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_t...
They may generally follow it out of good manners, but it is not binding on them.