ww1 'prize bounty' for enemy ships

[grendav2001]

the following is a report taken from the 'northern daily mail' in the former town of west hartlepool and dated 10 january 1917:

naval prize bounty

----------

the year's awards

the british prize court - the court under the presidency of sir samuel evans, which distibutes among the officers and crews of such of his majesty's ships of war as are actually present at the destruction of enemy armed ships calculated at the rate of £5 for each person on board the enemy ship at the beginning of the engagement - has just concluded a very busy year. between 27th of march and 31st of

december claims were heard for the destruction of 23 enemy ships, and awards totalling nearly £41,000 were made. in the period 8187 officers and men were aboard the enemy ships sent to the bottom. while it does not by any means exhaust the casualties suffered by the enemy at the instance of the navy, the following list shows some of the more important losses which have been dealt with by the court:

it then listed various types of enemy ships/vessels that were destroyed in various parts of the world and the bounty that was 'earned' for each vessel.

--------------

two questions

how was the money shared out amongst the crews - was it 'saved' for after the war and if so, what happened to the money if a crewman died during ww1 and was owed this money?

how much is £41,000 worth in 2008?

grendav

[Terence Munson]

Hello grendav

According to: This Site, £41000 in 1917 would be worth £1,968,000 in 2006 and not much more for 2008, if I’ve done the calculation correctly?

Hopefully one of the Forum's resident Ships and navies experts will be along to answer the other question shortly

Cheers, Terry

[per ardua per mare per terram]

There have been several previous threads on the prise fund and prize money:

 

Calculating the value of money over the ages gives so many results here’s a couple of examples of purchasing power:

A good house in this area then £500, (now £500,000) so £41,000 = 82 houses then!

 

512 Vickers machine guns according to this thread:

 

If money was owed (back pay & war gratuities were others) on the seaman's death it followed the usual rules of inheritance. That's why making a will was important.