Treasure measured

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Even though pirates raided many ships, few, if any, buried their treasure. Often, the "treasure" that was stolen was food, water, alcohol, weapons, or clothing. Other things they stole were household items like bits of soap and gear like rope and anchors, or sometimes they would keep the ship they captured (either to sell off or because it was better than their ship). Such items were likely to be needed immediately, rather than saved for future trade. For this reason, there was no reason for the pirates to bury these goods. Pirates tended to kill few people aboard the ships they captured, oftentimes they would kill no one if the ship surrendered, because if it became known that pirates took no prisoners, their victims would fight to the last and make victory very difficult, contrariwise ships would quickly surrender if they knew they would be spared. In one well documented case 300 heavily armed soldiers on a ship attacked by Thomas Tew surrendered after a brief battle with none of Tew's 40 man crew being injured.[29]
Rewards of piracy
Pirates had a system of hierarchy on board their ships determining how captured money was distributed. However, pirates were more “egalitarian” than any other area of employment with a high degree of equality. In fact pirate quartermasters were a counterbalance to the captain and had the power to veto his orders. The majority of plunder was in the form of cargo and ships equipment with medicines the most highly prized. A vessel's doctor’s chest would be worth anywhere from £300 to £400 or around $470,000 in today’s values. Jewels were common plunder but not popular as they were hard to sell and pirates, unlike the public of today, had little concept of their value. There is one case recorded where a pirate was given a large diamond worth a great deal more than the value of the handful of small diamonds given his crewmates as a share. He felt cheated and had it broken up to match what they received.[30]
Spanish pieces of eight minted in Mexico or Seville were the standard trade currency in the American colonies. However, every colony still used the monetary units of pounds, shillings and pence for bookkeeping while Spanish, German, French and Portuguese money were all standard mediums of exchange as British law prohibited the export of British silver coinage. Until the exchange rates were standardized in the late 1700s each colony legislated its own different exchange rates. In England, 1 piece of eight was worth 4s 3d while it was worth 8s in New York, 7s 6d in Pennsylvania and 6s 8d in Virginia. One 18th century English shilling was worth around $58 in modern currency so a piece of eight could be worth anywhere from $246 to $465. As such, the value of pirate plunder could vary considerably depending on who recorded it and where.[31][32]
Ordinary seamen received a part of the plunder at the captains’ discretion but usually a single share. On average, a pirate could expect the equivalent of a years wages as his share from each ship captured while the crew of the most successful pirates would often each receive a share valued at around £1,000 ($1.17 million) at least once in their career.[30] One of the larger amounts taken from a single ship was that by captain Thomas Tew from an Indian merchantman in 1692. Each ordinary seaman on his ship received a share worth £3,000 ($3.5 million) with officers receiving proportionally larger amounts as per the agreed shares with Tew himself receiving 2½ shares. It is known there were actions with multiple ships captured where a single share was worth almost double this.[30][33]
By contrast, an ordinary seamen in the Royal Navy received 19s per month to be paid in a lump sum at the end of a tour of duty which was around half the rate paid in the Merchant Navy. However, corrupt officers would often “tax” their crews wage to supplement their own and the Royal Navy of the day was infamous for its reluctance to pay. From this wage, 6d per month was deducted for the maintenance of Greenwich Hospital with similar amounts deducted for the Chatham Chest, the chaplain and surgeon. Six months pay was withheld to discourage desertion. That this was insufficient incentive is revealed in a report on proposed changes to the RN Admiral Nelson wrote in 1803, he noted that since 1793 more than 42,000 sailors had deserted. Roughly half of all RN crews were pressganged and these not only received lower wages than volunteers but were shackled while the vessel was docked and never permitted to go ashore until released from service.[34][35]
Although the Royal Navy suffered from many morale issues, it answered the question of prize money via the 'Cruizers and Convoys' Act of 1708 which handed over the share previously gained by the Crown to the captors of the ship. Technically it was still possible for the Crown to get the money or a portion of it but this rarely happened. The process of condemnation of a captured vessel and its cargo and men was given to the High Court of the Admiralty and this was the process which remained in force with minor changes throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
The share-out of prize-money is given below in its pre-1808 state.
(a) 1/8 Flag Officer (b) 2/8 Captain(s) (c) 1/8 Captains of Marines, Lieutenants, Masters, Surgeons (d) 1/8 Lieutenants of Marines, Secretary to Flag Officer, Principal Warrant Officers, Chaplains. (e) 1/8 Midshipmen, Inferior Warrant Officers, Principal Warrant Officer's Mates, Marine Sergeants (f) 2/8 The Rest.
After 1808 the regulations were changed to give the following:
(a) 1/3 of the Captain's share (b) 2/8 (c) 1/8 (d) 1/8 (e) & (f) 4/8
Even the flag-officer's share was not quite straight forward, he would only get the full one-eighth if he had no junior flag-officer beneath him. If this was the case then he would get a third share. If he had more than one then he would take one half while the rest was shared out equally.
There was a great deal of money to be made in this way. The record breaker, admittedly before our wars, was the capture of the Spanish frigate the HERMIONE, which was carrying treasure in 1762. The value of this was so great that each individual seaman netted £485! The two captains responsible, Evans and Pownall got just on £65,000 each. In January 1807 the frigate CAROLINE took the Spanish SAN RAFAEL which brought in £52,000 for her Captain, Peter Rainier (who had only been a Midshipman some thirteen months before). All through the wars there are examples of this kind of luck falling on Captains. Another famous 'capture' was that of the Spanish frigates THETIS and SANTA BRIGADA which were loaded with specie. They were taken by four British frigates who shared the money, each Captain receiving £40,730. Each Lieutenant got £5,091, the Warrant Officer group, £2,468, the Midshipmen £791 and the individual seaman £182.
It should also be noted that it was usually only the frigates which took prizes, the ships of the line were far too ponderous to be able to chase and capture the smaller ships which generally carried treasure. Nelson always bemoaned that he had done badly out of prize-money and even as a flag-officer received little. This was not that he had a bad command of Captains but rather that British mastery of the seas was so complete that few enemy ships dared to sail