Vladika
SOC-14 1K
In questions of Prize Money:
Under US Constitution Article 1 Section 8, it is still theoretically possible for Congress to authorize Letters of Marque.
The United States continued paying prizes to naval officers in the Spanish-American War, and only abjured the practice by statute during World War I. The U.S. prize courts adjudicated no cases resulting from its own takings in either World War I or World War II (although the Supreme Court did rule on a German prize - the Appam - that was brought to and held at Hampton Roads).
Russia, Portugal, Germany, Japan, China, Romania, and France followed the United States in World War I, declaring they would no longer pay prize money to naval officers.
November 9, 1914, the British and French governments signed an agreement establishing government jurisdiction over prizes captured by either of them.
The Russian government acceded to this agreement on March 5, 1915, and the Italian government followed suit on January 15, 1917.
Shortly before World War II France passed a law which allowed for taking prizes, as did Holland and Norway, a prospect to which the Nazi invasion quickly put an end. Britain formally ended the eligibility of naval officers to share in prize money in 1948.
Under contemporary international law and treaties, nations may still bring enemy vessels before their prize courts, to be condemned and sold. But no nation now offers a share to the officers or crew who risked their lives in the capture.
The British paid out (commonwealth nations shared in this):
...more than £20,000,000 ..., but the sharing, out took ten years. Payments varied from £3000 to-admirals to £25 to able seamen. This time admirals would receive less and able seamen more. (based on Napoleonic precedents)
This was "across the board" men who did the actual sinking or capturing of enemy ships would not be paid "extra". Conditions of modern' war had rendered that custom' obsolete.
Last US Navy prize money awarded.
The USS Omaha (CL-4) and the German commerce raider Odenwald, prior to the US entry into World War II, on 6 November 1941.
An admiralty court ruled that since the ship was illegally claiming American registration, there was sufficient grounds for confiscation. A legal case was started claiming that the crews of the two American ships had salvage rights because Odenwald's crew attempting to scuttle the ship was the equivalent of abandoning her. The court case - settled in 1947 - ruled the members of the boarding party and the prize crew were entitled to $3,000 apiece while all the other crewmen in Omaha and Somers were entitled to two months’ pay and allowances. This was the last prize money awarded by the US Navy."
In this case it was less "prize" and more "salvage"
Under US Constitution Article 1 Section 8, it is still theoretically possible for Congress to authorize Letters of Marque.
The United States continued paying prizes to naval officers in the Spanish-American War, and only abjured the practice by statute during World War I. The U.S. prize courts adjudicated no cases resulting from its own takings in either World War I or World War II (although the Supreme Court did rule on a German prize - the Appam - that was brought to and held at Hampton Roads).
Russia, Portugal, Germany, Japan, China, Romania, and France followed the United States in World War I, declaring they would no longer pay prize money to naval officers.
November 9, 1914, the British and French governments signed an agreement establishing government jurisdiction over prizes captured by either of them.
The Russian government acceded to this agreement on March 5, 1915, and the Italian government followed suit on January 15, 1917.
Shortly before World War II France passed a law which allowed for taking prizes, as did Holland and Norway, a prospect to which the Nazi invasion quickly put an end. Britain formally ended the eligibility of naval officers to share in prize money in 1948.
Under contemporary international law and treaties, nations may still bring enemy vessels before their prize courts, to be condemned and sold. But no nation now offers a share to the officers or crew who risked their lives in the capture.
The British paid out (commonwealth nations shared in this):
...more than £20,000,000 ..., but the sharing, out took ten years. Payments varied from £3000 to-admirals to £25 to able seamen. This time admirals would receive less and able seamen more. (based on Napoleonic precedents)
This was "across the board" men who did the actual sinking or capturing of enemy ships would not be paid "extra". Conditions of modern' war had rendered that custom' obsolete.
Last US Navy prize money awarded.
The USS Omaha (CL-4) and the German commerce raider Odenwald, prior to the US entry into World War II, on 6 November 1941.
An admiralty court ruled that since the ship was illegally claiming American registration, there was sufficient grounds for confiscation. A legal case was started claiming that the crews of the two American ships had salvage rights because Odenwald's crew attempting to scuttle the ship was the equivalent of abandoning her. The court case - settled in 1947 - ruled the members of the boarding party and the prize crew were entitled to $3,000 apiece while all the other crewmen in Omaha and Somers were entitled to two months’ pay and allowances. This was the last prize money awarded by the US Navy."
In this case it was less "prize" and more "salvage"
