Prize Money
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Nelson and His Navy - Prize Money

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This came from the disposal of any enemy ships which a Royal Navy vessel might capture. It included the value of the ship when condemned (by an Admiralty court) and sold, any cargo it carried and a small bounty on enemy seamen taken as prisoners. The system was perhaps rather unfair as all ships within sight when the capture took place were entitled to equal shares. The theory behind this held that an enemy might react differently if he knew that other warships were in the vicinity. He might, for instance, strike his colours without a fight if he knew he might have to take on another ship if he managed to take the first one. Also the Admiral, under whose orders the ship sailed, was entitled to a share, even if he was nowhere in the vicinity. Little wonder then, that Captains liked to be sailing under direct Admiralty orders because this meant there was no single Admiral commanding them and therefore all prize-money went to the crew. The origins of prize-money lay in the 'Cruizers and Convoys' Act of 1708 which handed over the share previously gained by the Crown to the captors of the ship. Technically it was still possible for the Crown to get the money or a portion of it but this rarely happened.

The process of condemnation of a captured vessel and its cargo and men was given to the High Court of the Admiralty and this was the process which remained in force with minor changes throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

The share-out of prize-money is given below in its pre-1808 state.

(a) 1/8 Flag Officer
(b) 2/8 Captain(s)
(c) 1/8 Captains of Marines, Lieutenants, Masters, Surgeons
(d) 1/8 Lieutenants of Marines, Secretary to Flag Officer, Principal Warrant Officers, Chaplains.
(e) 1/8 Midshipmen, Inferior Warrant Officers, Principal Warrant Officer's Mates, Marine Sergeants
(f) 2/8 The Rest.

After 1808 the regulations were changed to give the following:

(a) 1/3 of the Captain's share
(b) 2/8
(c) 1/8
(d) 1/8
(e) & (f) 4/8

Even the flag-officer's share was not quite straight forward, he would only get the full one-eighth if he had no junior flag-officer beneath him. If this was the case then he would get a third share. If he had more than one then he would take one half while the rest was shared out equally.

There was a great deal of money to be made in this way. The record breaker, admittedly before our wars, was the capture of the Spanish frigate the HERMIONE, which was carrying treasure in 1762. The value of this was so great that each individual seaman netted £485! The two captains responsible, Evans and Pownall got just on £65,000 each. In January 1807 the frigate CAROLINE took the Spanish SAN RAFAEL which brought in £52,000 for her Captain, Peter Rainier (who had only been a Midshipman some thirteen months before). All through the wars there are examples of this kind of luck falling on Captains. Another famous 'capture' was that of the Spanish frigates THETIS and SANTA BRIGADA which were loaded with specie. They were taken by four British frigates who shared the money, each Captain receiving £40,730. Each Lieutenant got £5,091, the Warrant Officer group, £2,468, the Midshipmen £791 and the individual seaman £182.

It should also be noted that it was usually only the frigates which took prizes, the ships of the line were far too ponderous to be able to chase and capture the smaller ships which generally carried treasure. Nelson always bemoaned that he had done badly out of prize-money and even as a flag-officer received little. This was not that he had a bad command of Captains but rather that British mastery of the seas was so complete that few enemy ships dared to sail.

Prize Bounty

We have already touched upon this and it is worth remembering that although the capture of rich merchantmen was profitable it was not the main way in which the Royal Navy ships were supposed to act. It was their prime directive of the destruction of enemy naval shipping which should take precedence. In order to stimulate this the Admiralty promoted Prize-Bounties or Head-Money. This was only paid on enemy ships of war which were destroyed or captured and comprised of £5 per head of enemy seamen. Hence the destruction of an enemy '74' would net around £3,000. As long as the enemy was not sunk a victorious Captain could also sell the ship to the Admiralty. They usually obliged, and at a fair price for they were aware of the encouragement this provided. In any case it was to the Admiralty's advantage to have a ready supply of ships which were ready built and in many cases had superior sailing qualities to the home-grown article. However the amounts involved were never as large as those which could be taken as merchant prizes. Even after Trafalgar Collingwood thought he would get around £1,500 as head-money.

Freight Money

This was money paid for the transportation of valuables upon a Royal Navy vessel. It could be considerable and was often greater than a Captain's pay. It should be noted that there was no sharing here and only the Flag Officer and the Captain was paid, 1/3 and 2/3 each. There was, however, no 'Convoys an Cruizers Act' to agree on these amounts, only custom and practice. This archaic right was abolished by statute in 1801, but was curiously reinstated in 1808. From then until 1819 the amounts paid were fixed by negotiation but were usually taken to be around 2% of the total value carried. In 1819 the rate was fixed by statute. It was to remain in effect with some alterations until its repeal in 1914. It is difficult to estimate exactly how much was paid to captains as there was a great deal of secrecy over such transactions, however a note in Lord Keith's accounts for the two years 1803-04 show that he received £46,076/14/2. Perhaps the lack of records show that the payment of Freight-Money and smuggling were close bed-fellows.

We can therefore see that pay alone was not the only inducement for a man and certainly for an officer to join the Navy. In fact, it was likely that pay was not the main inducement at all and that Prize-Money held that honour.


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