Show BOUNTIES AND PRIZES features of maritime marfaro recognized by uncle sam chodl I 1 on which alch wo would uld arise in the of a war tar between the united states anil and great britain some 1 important art t facts no jo prize money is paid for the destruction st of an ship in war I 1 instead n ste a a of that the united states government c granta a bounty which is distributed tri buted in exactly the same way says the washington star if the vessel wiped out was of greater force t than han the victor two hundred dollars is allowed for every officer and sailor on board of the vanquished craft if she was of less force the allowance is one hundred dollars per capita supposing that it is impossible to tell how many persons were on board of the ship d de e bt royed her class is stated and her complement reckoned on the same basis as if she had been a united states vessel of the same dais class This bounty is is a very different tiling thing from prize noney money the latter is a trust belonging absolutely I 1 to to the captors for whose benefit it is administered by the government the money is always ready to be paid when a claim is proved put but the bounty is a gift from uncle sam and requires a special appropriation by congress A good ma many ny claims for bounty are still open in the capture of new orleans large sums both in prize money and in bounty were involved iivo ived there was bounty for the destruction of fighting vessels and prize money for the capture of mer cha chantlen chant nimen men forty five ships were concerned on the union side and the cash gained had bad to be divided up among corp morp more than five thousand men the figuring on this problem lein made mad a large volume which is still preserved in a war beaw between can this con country and geat britain blockade running would cut an important figure the british would try to bloc blockade kado our ports and we should do our oar best to blockade theirs for lack of strong battleships we would find it difficult to keep up ouri our end while england could hardly maintain an effective blockade along such a vast extent of seaboard as is possessed by the united states sode so dependent is john bull on imports even for food that he be would starve if shut 0 off ff from the rest of the world for ninety days it is an open question whether privateers would be utilized in such a war after the crimean war at the congress of vienna all of the eu european ro powers signed an agreement to the effect that they would not lecog nize private ering in future the united states refused to come into this agreement agree we have re reserved s erv e d the right to employ privateers atee rs 0 one ne reason why this government declined to abjure this form of warfare was vas that it would be exceptionally advantageous to the united states for example by issing letters of marque we could quickly sweep british commerce off theseas tha seas it is said that mat anva privateer teer 1 mg ing is piratical that tha t is is quite true the giving of prize money is an old Tira custom people call it a remnant 0 of f barbarism hut but when it comes to actual war prize koneya money I 1 is always a powerful offensive age agent nt rh rhe c acance haats asne ia t warriors who sail the seas this sea is not an age of sentimentalism in warfare even aven en e plosive explosive N bullets arp arc allowable among agencies of destruction it may maybe bf safely said that vate ering will male make part of the next great international conflict on the waters an and d no criticism will be uttered in in regard to cases like that of the alabama which was denounced in the north as a a private because she was naver never in a home port havin having been armed and equipped in englana england Englan 3 in the old days when uncle sams blips had orders to keep beep a sharp look i out for slavers clavers sl avers a vessel carrying slaves was doubly a prize its value went to the captors in addition to twenty dollars a head paid by the government for negroes found on board the latter were carried back to africa and set free |