NAVAL PERQUISITES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1933, Page 4

NAVAL PERQUISITES

FORTUNES FROM PRIZE MONEY

The Navy is not regarded as a. money-making profession, but in the days when prize money was distributed among the offiers and men of

ships which captured enemy vessels

some naval officers made fortunes (says the Melbourne “Age”). It was estimated that Admiral Lord Rodney, who was in command, of a British fleet operating in the West Indies during 1780-82, received £435,000 in prize money. On May 21, 17G2, two English frigates, the Active and the Favourite, captured off Cadiz the Spanish ship Hermione, which had left Lima, Peru, on .January 6 with a valuable cargo, including a large quantity of gold and silver. The net amount realised by the sale of the cargo was £516,695, whereas the ship herself realised only £3OlO. The captain of the Active was

awarded £65,053 in prize money, and the captain of the Favourite received £64,872. Five commissioned officers received £13,000 each, fifteen warrant officers £4,330 each, thirty-six petty officers £lBOO each, and two hundred and sixty-eight seamen and marines £4BO each. In April, 1793, when England and France were at war, a. naval squadron under the command of Admiral Gell, consisting of four “sail of the line” and a frigate, fell in with the French privateer Dumourier, which eleven days before had captured the Spanish ship St. a valuable cargo, including silver in bars amounting to £500,000. Admiral Cell’s share of the prize money amounted to £70,4G5. and each of the captains of the ships under his command received £28,186. Commissioned officers received £2072, warrant officers £1194, petty officers £332, and seamen £34. Sometimes sailors spent their prize money very foolishly. “Lloyd’s Evening Post” of January 2G, 1763, stated: “Amongst the many uncommon pranks played by the crew of the Active, man. o’-war, which took the Hermione, is the following: Two of the common sailors at Plymouth, after they had got their prize money, not only decorated themselves but their lasses

also; one of them bought a sufficient quantity of rich brocaded silk to make his temporary wife a full sack, and insisted on its being lined with the same; which was done accordingly. The other hired three post-chaises to go from Plymouth to the dock, which is about two miles, in one of them he put his oak stick, in the second his wig, and got into the third himself, and rode in state, bareheaded. Afterwards these two jolly tars met with one of their mess-mates at a publichouse, the landlord of* which not having they liked for dinner, one of them ordered a frying pan and a large lump of butter, declaring he would stand cook, when they came to a resolution item con., to fry their watches.

The system of distributing prize money among the officers and men of ships taking part in the capture of. enemy ships was abolished at the outbreak of the Great. War by an Order-in-Uouncil. It was fell that the system would prove unjust to the officers and

men of those ships carrying out important operations away from the trade routes, where prizes were to be picked up. Few, if any, of the British dreadnoughts captured prizes during the Great War, whereas the cruiser Suffolk took sixty-seven prizes, and the Niobe sixty-five. A system of gratuities distributed among the officers and men of the Navy was substituted for the old prize-money system. At the close of the war admirals of squadrons received gratuities of £4OOO each, captains £575.-Jicutenants £l7O, warrant officers £B5. petty officers £54, and able seamen £33. Admiral Lord Beatty. who was commander-in-chief

of the Navy during the closing years of the war, was voted £lOO,OOO by the British Parliament, Admiral Lord Jellicoe was voted £50,000, and live other admirals were voted £lO,OOO each.