pendragonman
Absent Friends Margrave
Quite right, McPerth. The main advantage of a privateer is not having so many hands in the till come payout time.
Prize Money
- Thread starter Vladika
- Start date
Quite right, McPerth. The main advantage of a privateer is not having so many hands in the till come payout time.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, so I could be wrong, but I believe that as far as captain and crew of a privateer were concerned, the owner took half -- after damages had been paid for. That's worse than the 1/8 the admiral took (and ship repairs paid by the navy).
The main advantage of a privateer was that he wasn't expected to engage in anything approaching an equal fight with cargo-less enemy warships.
Hans
Vladika
SOC-14 1K
Exactly. The privateer was never a warship. It was a commercial enterprise from the beginning. That, and taking numerous prizes, and having much smaller crews, compared to a frigate, made many American seamen wealthy.
The real money was never in the ships taken, but the cargoes. One moderately successful voyage would pay for a privateer. When the Letter of Marque was no good between wars, smuggling paid well. (It still does. Maine is the Heroin point of entry for the Northeastern USA and the State has the highest per capita opiate addition rate in the country. To understand the "Island Mentality" watch Steven King's Storm of the Century. "It's Island Business." "What happens on the Island stays on the Island".)
I'm living in Searsport Maine these days and it always has been a small town. During Colonial and Revolutionary times fully 10% of ALL American Sea captains came from here, this one small town. Privateering was a way of life, and a lucrative one.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
The downside of privateering could be becoming a casualty of foreign policy.
You might consider investing part of the loot to have friends at court.
You might consider investing part of the loot to have friends at court.
There were new scales of prize money towards the end of the Napoleonic wars which reduced the admiral's share and increased the crews' share. Privateer owners preferred not to have their expensive vessels risked fighting warships, whilst regular naval vessels did not like fighting privateer's as there was no glory for the officers.
I seem to recall reading an article in the naval chronicle about a captain that let a merchant be captured, then recaptured her to claim salvage money, I believe he was dismissed from his ship.
Regards
David
See that a regular ship has to offer it first to the Navy, who (while it's true will pay for any repairs needed) will offer quite lower prices (and more so if it has to be repaired), while a privateer will have easier to sell it on auction (probably with lower price if damaged). And, aside from the aldmiral's share, also the squadron commander takes his own, and the capitain (who's likely to be the owner) too, so the 50% for the ship owners is not too much more (less so if you think it's acting with less support).
Agreed here. Privater's have more freedom of action and about who thoy do engage and who they don't.
Well, the Imperial Government and Sector and Subsector Dukes also take their share... Does that count?
Challenge #38
You can buy the CD-ROM of the entire Challenge Collection from FFE's website.
Or, if you really only want Challenge #38, go to DriveThru:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/87199/CHALLENGE-Magazine-No-38
You can buy the CD-ROM of the entire Challenge Collection from FFE's website.
Or, if you really only want Challenge #38, go to DriveThru:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/87199/CHALLENGE-Magazine-No-38
I tried to get some numbers regarding prize money for a game idea and found this graphic which shows the descending share amounts for a crew...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Warrantchart.png
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Warrantchart.png
lostscout5
SOC-12
Neat fact about the press gangs. They were almost never used for the 3rd raters {frigates}. 1st raters, ships o the line, what would later be called battleships, spent most of there time in port or on blockade duty, broken up by the occasional great murderous battle. 2and raters {cruisers} did mostly the same, but they also do long boring patrols. 4th raters {sloops, corvettes}were mostly used for patrol and escort duties. But the frigates were the hunters, the royal navy used them for raiding. When a frigate need crew they had men lining up to volunteer. The captain could pick his crews. The REST of the fleet got whatever the press gangs could round up. But a frigate that might go commerce raiding... well :devil:
Chris Barlow
SOC-10
A historical note, re prize money, interesting for those adventuring in the Trojan Reach sector anywhere near the slavery loving Aslan "Glorious Empire". For most of the 19th Century the British Royal Navy, and some others paid "prize money" to Captains and crews who captured slaving ships, off West Africa. Because slave ships were too specialised to re-sell to finance prize money, no prize money was paid for capturing the slave ship.
However what was called "head money" was paid for each slave freed. Head money in wartime was paid for each enemy sailor captured/killed, as replacing trained war ship's crews was even more time consuming than replacing captured warships. Head money paid for each slave freed was only half that paid for each enemy sailor captured. However with each slave ship carrying over a hundred slaves, it was still a useful bonus for "peacetime" Navy men.
Similar rewards might be paid by the Imperium, the Florian League, and other Human governments in the Trojan Reaches for the freeing of any of their citizens from Glorious Empire slave ships.
However what was called "head money" was paid for each slave freed. Head money in wartime was paid for each enemy sailor captured/killed, as replacing trained war ship's crews was even more time consuming than replacing captured warships. Head money paid for each slave freed was only half that paid for each enemy sailor captured. However with each slave ship carrying over a hundred slaves, it was still a useful bonus for "peacetime" Navy men.
Similar rewards might be paid by the Imperium, the Florian League, and other Human governments in the Trojan Reaches for the freeing of any of their citizens from Glorious Empire slave ships.
