Commerce Raiders and Prize Money

I will point out in case readers of your few posts on this thread walk away thinking that the Civil War era U.S. Navy and their crews were nothing more than criminals and thieves, that the sharing of prize monies among ships and their crews was the norm of most country's navies. For example, the British Royal Navy had been doing such since the 17th century and the sharing of prize monies was later extended to the British Army as well as to the Royal Naval Air Service and the later Royal Air Force.

"They did it, too," in other words? Thank you for clarifying.
 
The payouts could be substantial, but they were rare and it typically took months or years for the money to get into the hands of the crew. (Private Johnston's payout from the Battle of Mobile Bay, above, was made in 1867, three years after the event.) There was a lucrative business opportunity there for prize money brokers, who would advance a lesser amount immediately to the sailor or Marine, in exchange for having the prize money warrant turned over to him. It was not unlike tax preparers today who will advance customers money upon filing, based on their projected tax refund.

Yeah, Robert Smalls got around $1,500 in 1862 for CSS Planter. It wasn't until around 1900 he got another five thousand bucks, still a fraction of what the Confederate ship he absconded with was worth.
 
Yeah, Robert Smalls got around $1,500 in 1862 for CSS Planter. It wasn't until around 1900 he got another five thousand bucks, still a fraction of what the Confederate ship he absconded with was worth.

plantercrew1.png


Smalls and his comrades -- not their wives, BTW, who ran essentially the same risks as the men did in stealing Planter -- got ripped off in terms of prize money. But it was also an odd case, because their original reward was not made under the USN prize money regulations; it was done by act of Congress because they were not U.S. military personnel and therefore subject to the standard formula.
 
Smalls and his comrades -- not their wives, BTW, who ran essentially the same risks as the men did in stealing Planter -- got ripped off in terms of prize money. But it was also an odd case, because their original reward was not made under the USN prize money regulations; it was done by act of Congress because they were not U.S. military personnel and therefore subject to the standard formula.

Andy, IIRC, Smalls was commissioned as a Naval officer by an Act of Congress that backdated him to the day before he took the CSS Planter, allowing him prize money. You're absolutely right, though, he and his crew never got what someone like David Dixon Porter would have in the same circumstances.
 
In principle, it was possible to take a prize into a neutral port but have it condemned by a court in your own country.

Semmes in fact attempted to do this with a number of his first captures with CSS Sumter, but when they were consistently released to their owners, etc., he gave it up as a bad deal and burned his condemned prizes instead.
 
Semmes in fact attempted to do this with a number of his first captures with CSS Sumter, but when they were consistently released to their owners, etc., he gave it up as a bad deal and burned his condemned prizes instead.

Tough customer, Semmes...
 
Tough customer, Semmes...

Definitely. While I've often said I'd much rather have a beer with John Newland Maffitt, there's no doubting Semmes' abilities. Much of what he did was calculated-- in the case of trying to send prizes into neutral ports for adjudication, he was probably not especially surprised when it didn't work out, but he was a stickler for following the legal forms-- the fact that he'd tried it strengthened his case when he had to burn his prizes instead. (Not that it made him any more popular with Northern shipowners, of course.)
 
Definitely. While I've often said I'd much rather have a beer with John Newland Maffitt, there's no doubting Semmes' abilities. Much of what he did was calculated-- in the case of trying to send prizes into neutral ports for adjudication, he was probably not especially surprised when it didn't work out, but he was a stickler for following the legal forms-- the fact that he'd tried it strengthened his case when he had to burn his prizes instead. (Not that it made him any more popular with Northern shipowners, of course.)

I think we can compromise here and have a beer with both. Colorful characters like these are rare. It's what makes this history such fun.

BTW, the story of Semmes throwing his sword into the ocean rather than surrender it to a Yankee Captain after the loss of Alabama really takes the cake, at least for me. They could catch him, but they couldn't hold him.
 
One interesting story I remember about Semmes... It was not uncommon in the antebellum Navy, which was oversupplied with officers, for an officer to go an extended period of time between sea assignments. Since pay while not at sea was reduced, there was a considerable incentive to find some other employment. Some (like Maffitt) worked for the Coast Survey, which was a civilian agency. Semmes studied law and was admitted to the bar, specializing in naval-related legal actions. One officer he defended in a case was later to be his staunchly loyal first officer on the Sumter and Alabama: John McIntosh Kell. (Kell pled guilty and was sentenced to be dismissed from the Navy, but the dismissal was quashed through political influence-- a not-uncommon occurrence in the prewar Navy. Still, he had made a favorable impression on Semmes for his bearing during the trial, and Kell was certainly a supporter of the man who had worked in his defense.)
 
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BTW, @Mark F. Jenkins , is there a good bio or something else that's been written about John Maffit?

I really need to bone up on some of these Naval characters.
 
I think my go-to would be Royce Shingleton's High Seas Confederate: The Life and Times of John Newland Maffitt. Shingleton also did a good bio of John Taylor Wood, the South's naval commando-- perhaps even more deserving of that title than the North's William B. Cushing, who usually gets called that.

Another good bio of Maffitt is Sea Devil of the Confederacy, by Edward Boykin, but it might be harder to find. Shingleton's had a more recent reprint IIRC.
 
Thank you. Shingleton's work is on the way to me. Look forward to it.

Boykin's, according to internet sellers of used books, is out of the question, for now. A visit to the library I guess is in order.
 
@Drew

Sir, in absolutely no way meant to be argumentative...

When I put it in my cart and take it the whole way to the last step of 'Place Your Order' it comes up $8.99 from Better World Books who I have ordered from often. Not sure what the difference is...

Sir, don't know how to help,
USS ALASKA
 
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@Drew

Sir, in an effort to assist you I'll order the book and ship it to you for a mere $100.00 - a 50% savings! :wink:

PM me with your address...

The Smart-A** in me has taken over again....sorry,
USS ALASKA
 
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