Spanish plate fleets was left entirely at our mercy." Rodney-always a poor man, and a far greater fighting sailer than Pocock-had not the honour of taking Havana, and with it the sum of £122,000, which fell to its actual captor as prize money. Rodney was, in fact, in command in the West Indies at the time, and had most brilliantly captured Martinique, St Lucia, and other islands. Yet by a disgraceful piece of official jobbery Rodney had been recalled, or rather left with the Leeward Islands command and a diminished force; while Pocock, with a huge fleet and large land forces, had the distinction of reducing Havana and pocketing a fortune in prize money. Discontent over prize money slumbered for years after this enactment, till the famous Cochrane (later the Earl of Dundonald) began his vigorous campaign against the Admiralty Prize Courts and naval lawyers and agents generally, in an effort to secure for the actual captors some modicum, however small, of the value of their prizes. Referring in his autobiography to these scandalous peculations of the Courts and the lawyers, he says: "We got all the fighting, whilst the Admiralty Court and its hungry parasites monopolised the greater portion of our hard-won prize money. In many cases they took the whole, and in one case brought me into debt, though the prize was worth several thousand pounds." The mutineers at the Nore in 1797, when they presented their demands, referred to this matter of the unjust distribution of prize money; but nothing came of that petition, save that it was the commencement of a series of exposures by Cochrane of the existent evils. One may well wonder how it came about that the captors of prizes received nothing, and as the gallant Admiral remarked, in some cases were put into debt for an act of valour on the high seas. When Cochrane was appointed to the Pallas in 1805, he received his sailing orders from the Admiralty; but the Admiral of the Port of Plymouth recalled those orders, copied them, and reissued them to Cochrane. This allowed the Admiral, Sir William Young, to claim his share of any prize money that the Pallas might make. The Admiral's jurisdiction extended no farther than Plymouth Sound. But by reissuing the sailing orders he extended his authority wherever the Pallas might sail. to be hoisted on the fore, main, lagger might be swelled up to and mizzen - trucks of their the expense of condemning an respective masts three massive Indiaman; the labour of capture Spanish golden candlesticks, ending in nothing but putting which, glittering in the sun, money in the proctor's pockets.' had a whimsical effect to hun- He instanced the case of a dreds of spectators assembled Jewish agent who received below Government House." two-thirds out of the produce of the vessel, the remaining third being for the Admiral, Captain, and seamen. Assiduous investigations by Cochrane revealed amazing scandals and abuses with regard to this money, particularly at the Admiralty Prize Court at Malta, dealing with the prizes in the Mediterranean, at whose hands both he and his crew had suffered considerably. A pirate ship he had captured near Corsica was condemned as a Droit of Admiralty, it being currently reported at Malta that certain persons connected with the Admiralty Court had a share in her. No one on the Pallas obtained a farthing of that money, but, on the contrary, the ship's company was condemned by the Admiralty Court to pay 500 double sequins as costs. So bad had it become that Cochrane tried, with little hope of success, to get back to England to expose these robberies of the Malta Court, "the officials of which were reaping colossal fortunes at the expense of naval officers and seamen, who were wasting their lives and blood for official game." Finally he did manage to get home, and on the floor of the House of Commons exposed the appalling extortions of the Prize Courts. In the course of his speech he said that "the most insignificant vessels were condemned at an expense equal to that of the largest, so that the condemnation of a fishing The Judge of the Admiralty Court was most angry at what he called the unfounded acousations of Cochrane, but the Treasurer of the Navy, Mr Rose, admitted in his reply that there were such cases, and instanced one in which an agent at Portsmouth, who had £62,000 to distribute, made up his charges to £9462, of which £1200 was for postage. Captain William Stanhope Badcock, an officer of Lord St Vincent's day, recounts that he was so unfortunate as to lose every penny of the prize money to which he had become entitled during the French war, owing to bankruptoy in various parts of the world of four agents to whom he had entrusted his prize affairs. "These honest people," he says, "have an easy way of getting rid of money committed to their charge. A ship brings captured vessels into harbour. On board comes Mr A., B., C., or D., with a smirking face and soft tongue, making low bows, hoping that he may have the honour- being an accredited agent under a bond of £20,000 to transact the affairs of H.M. ship. Officers generally being strangers in the port, and having orders frequently to prooeed to sea again in forty-eight hours after completing water and provisions, have no time to look after or make inquiries about stability of prize agents, and therefore trust their concerns to the first that come. The prizes in the meanwhile are sold by the agent. Now, what does he do generally with the money? Why, speculates with it on his own account. If he fails, the prize agent breaks, and off he starts, paying perhaps not a ls. in the £." No redress of these evils was attempted. A few years later, Cochrane, finding himself in debt for prizes, went to the Admiralty Court at Malta to discover why, and succeeded in stealing and smuggling away to a friend in Corsica the table of fees that hung in the Court. Great consternation and alarm arose in Malta, and he was even arrested for being in possession of the documents. He escaped from confinement, and again brought the matter before Parliament, by unrolling the table of costs of the condemnation of one of his prizes in the House, and the bill when unrolled was as long as the floor of the chamber itself. Coohrane made interesting discoveries. The chief officer at Malta was a Mr Jackson, who held the office of marshal by deputy in order that he might perform the duties of proctor. He dealt with each prize in each separate capacity, and "right profitably did Mr Proctor Jackson perform the duty of attending and consulting himself as Mr Marshal Jackson," the following extract from the table of costs of one prize reveals. Attending (as proctor) in the registry and bespeaking a monition Paid (himself as marshal) for said monition under seal and extracting. Copy of said monition for service Attending Mr Marshal (himself) and feeing and instructing him to execute same Paid the marshal (himself) for service of said monition (on himself). Certificate of service (on himself) Drawing and engrossing affidavit of service (on himself) In addition to this, the marshal claimed as perquisite one-half per cent on the inspection of prizes, one per cent for their appraisement, and two and a half per cent on sale. So that on a prize of £100,000 the marshal's share alone was £4000, irrespective of any other fees instanced above. Yet despite all these efforts the matter was shelved, and it was not until 1864 that the Naval Prize Act came into being, an Act which continued in force until the war began in 1914. Let it not be supposed, however, that the seamen of the early days were always badly treated in this matter of prize money. At times huge rewards came their way. Five hundred thousand pounds of treasure from the Spanish register ship Hermoine fell a prize to the British frigate Active and the sloop Favourite. The public rejoicing at the birth of a new prince (George the Fourth) was heartened by this evidence of the prowess of the Navy; and the captains of the ships received £65,053, 138. 9d. and £64,872, 13s. 9d. respectively, and their officers £13,004, 14s. 1d. each. Thirty-six petty officers had £1804, 08. 4d. to spend as they chose, and sixty-eight seamen found themselves with £485 in gold. These men were at a loss to know how to dispose of so much money. They bought up all the watches in Portsmouth and "fryed" them over the galley fire. Then they passed a resolution making gold-laced tabs de rigueur. Those who failed to abide by the resolution were liable to severe penalties. One wretched sailor overburdened with money escaped these dread consequences only by his powers of persuasion. The last to arrive at the shop, he discovered that all the gold lace had been bought up and he had to content himself with silver lace. His shipmates were wroth indeed. Only did he avoid punishment by his insistent plea that he had forced the salesman to accept the full price of the gold-laced article. H.M.S. Phaeton, Sir A. Douglas, fell in with a Spanish galleon off the Lizard, one April day, and her cargo was valued at £1,200,000, of which sum her captor received £935,000. Admiral Anson was a fortunate fellow in encountering valuable ships. During his voyage around the world he seized the far-famed Manilla galleon, rejoicing in the highsounding name of Nuestra Senora del Caba Donga, which used to sail once a year for Spain laden to the hatches with treasure. Anson's original squadron of six ships, which had sailed round the world, had been, through various vicissitudes, reduced to the Centurion, the flagship, with a crew of 201, of which 45 were effectives. The Admiral deliberately set out to waylay the Spanish vessel, which was both heavily armed and manned. She carried 42 heavy guns and 28 smaller pieces (pateraros), with a perfectly healthy crew of 550. Nothing daunted, daunted, Anson gave battle, and after a fight lasting ninety minutes the Spaniard hauled down her flag, having lost 58 killed and 83 wounded. The actual vessel herself was sold at Canton. The value of her treasure was a million and a half dollars, and this money was brought home and drawn in triumph through the city of London in thirty-two waggons, "preceded by a band of military musicians, and guarded by a detachment of the ship's company." On board the French Concepcion, a prize of 1745, was a remarkable cargo of cocoa, sixty-eight chests of silver, gold and silver to the amount of over £200,000, 8 twowheeled chaise, the wheels and axles of which were silver set with diamonds and other precious stones, and a quantity of gold in bars. "When the ship was put up for sale, the French captain, upon the promise of a reward from Captain Frankland, the captor, discovered to him 30,000 pistoles, which were concealed in a place where no one would ever have dreamt of finding anything." By these means did the seamen of those days secure at times large sums of money. In 1812 the Caroline was paid off at Portsmouth, after having been eighteen years in commission. Some of the orew were entitled to £2000 prize money, in addition to an accumulation of ten years' wages. Possessed of wealth such as that, the seamen's hilarity knew no bounds. Their one aim was to spend their money. Devious and ingenious ways were adopted to get rid of it. One fore-mast man at Plymouth, who had just received £700 and twenty-four hours' leave of absence, hired three carriages and four-one for his hat, another for his stick, and a third for himself -and in this fashion rode about the streets of the town from public-house to publichouse till the expiration of his day of liberty. The most interesting stories of the way prize money was disposed of are related in the memoirs of Colonel Landmann, who served from 1789 onwards. Referring to Plymouth at the close of the century, he declares it was full of gaiety. "Fore Street was almost crowded with the officers of the Navy and Army - the former swimming in swimming in prize money - whilst the dillys (hackney ohariots) plying between Dook and Plymouth, vid Stonehouse, at sixpence each person, or eighteenpence for the whole, were continually not only filled with sailors, but covered by them, all anxious to expend large sums of money, which had just been paid them in guineas, and which they were frequently seen carrying about the streets in their hats under their arms. A sailor in those days had no idea of saving up anything for the future. His only thought was to get rid of his money, and to such an extent was this desire for squandering it carried, that I recollect being on board the Swiftsure with Captain Phillip, when a sailor, carrying a pewter pint-pot in his hand nearly full of guineas, came to his captain on deck, and begged very earnestly to be allowed to go on shore for the remainder of the day, in order to expend his prize money. Phillip knew the man, and stiffly refused his petition; the man soon reduced his demand to 'one hour on shore, if you please, dear Captain, and I promise you most sincerely to have then spent the last guinea.' "No,' replied Phillip. 'I know you will not return but when brought on by force,' and quickly turned towards the cabin. "The sailor again, hat in hand, followed his commanding officer, begging for leave to go in the boat about to push off for the shore, and assuring the Captain that he would remain in sight of the |