NJ Pine Barrens Maritime-Culture-Landscape 1 1 2024

Colonial Admiralty Courts and New Jersey’s Wartime Privateering: Prize Money
Audacity was the privateers stock-in-trade p 2 of 2
After the colonists formally seceded from Britain the United States was forced to rely heavily on privateering to supplement
its emerging navy. Problems are inherent in letting loose pirates - unregulated men upon the sea to attack every merchant
ship they could catch. Congress adopted Great Britain’s system of using letters of marque - official commissions issued by
the government allowing private persons to attack enemy ships and keep the proceeds as prize money.
Privateers were required to take the captured ship into the nearest port and file a case for payment (prize money) in the
state court of admiralty, seeking condemnation of the ship as prize. American citizens would file a claim as the original
owners of the ship or cargo. The case of prize then would become a case of recapture, and the privateer would receive a
certain portion of its value rather than the entire amount, with the rest going to the original owner.
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