PAY AND PRIZE MONEY IN THE OLD NAVY, 1776-1899
By LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ROBERT W. DALY
U. S. Coast Guard Reserve
Up to the turn of the century, the legislators of the United States often seemed to have expected the officers of the Navy to be gentlemen incomes which have been inadequate to maintain such a state in life. Quite apart from the professional ability and competence which have been considered to be the distinguishing characteristics of the officer, his commission alone has traditionally served as his introduction to strata of society where great wealth has been a commonplace. He did not require a similar income, but he did not need sufficient funds to clothe his rank with dignity; and due to annual fluctuations of value, he was not always solvent, to his on embarrassment and to the discredit of the service.
Let us, for example, take a Lieutenant of the year 1845. He was paid $1,500. What could he buy? A uniform would cost him $25, a shirt $1.75, undergarments $1.00, a handkerchief 75¢, a pair of woolen socks 35¢. He could buy a barrel of beef for $8.00 or of pork for $12.00 or of flour of $5.50; whiskey was only about 28¢ a gallon and butter could be had for 15¢ a pound. These latter, however, were not delicacies, but Navy stores. What about the following year, 1846, when we were at war with Mexico? A uniform then cost about $35.00, and other clothing items has risen correspondingly; beef had gone up to about $11.00 a barrel, pork to $14.50, flour to $6.87, whiskey to 33¢ and butter to 24¢. And what was the Lieutenant’s pay that year? It was still $1,500! While his wardroom bill had increased about 20 per cent, his income had not. If he was married, what of his family? Presumably, they subsisted on the 80 calories to be found in each ounce of whiskey, which was still relatively cheap.
The answer frequently given to critics of the pay system was that a valiant officer had excellent prospects of improving his fortune by money paid for prizes in wartime. Prize money[1] may well have been the persuasive force which brought some officers into the Navy; but wars were relatively few and far between, and, if nothing else, many officers persistently complained that the system was unjust to those officers who were obliged to operate shore facilities at the times that their running mates were off compensating for the lean years.
Let us examine the pay scale and prize money in the Navy for a century and a quarter.
In the Continental Navy, the Commander-in-Chief received $125 monthly, and subordinate officers were divided into two groups, those serving on vessels of 20 guns and more and those on vessels of 20 guns or less. The Captains of the smaller craft were paid $48 a month, Lieutenants and Masters $24, and a Midshipman $12. The Captains of the larger craft gloried in $60 monthly, Lieutenants and Masters had $30, and Midshipmen still had only $12. Even after the Continental Congress decreed that pay was to be in specie at a time that a dollar of hard money was worth forty in paper, prices had almost tripled since the pay bill was written in 1776 and the specie payment was decided upon in 1780.
Furthermore the latter year saw the State Navy of Virginia offering a $1,000 bounty to a seaman who reenlisted for three years. This was almost seventeen months’ pay for a Captain in the Continental Navy, and nearly forty-two months’ pay for a Lieutenant! Small wonder, then, that the first officers of the Navy served aboard privateers. Few were as fortunate in their naval commands as Captain John Barry, who during one cruise sent four prizes into L’Orient that were sold for more than £600,000. For most officers it required patriotism to remain in the blue uniform of the Continental Navy when every day they saw privateers coming into port with mere boys of fourteen, sailors for less than a month, receiving as a prize share no less than $700 in cash, a ton of sugar, 30 to 40 gallons of prime Jamaica rum, 20 pounds of cotton, and another 20 pounds of precious spices. Small wonder indeed that many of of our officers took leave of absence from the Navy to cruise as privateers!
When the troubles with the Barbary pirates caused the Navy to be reborn in 1794, Captains were paid $75 and six rations, and Lieutenants $40 and three rations. Five years later, during the Quasi-War with France, a new pay bill gave Captains of 32-gun and stronger frigates $100 and 8 rations; those aboard 20-30 gun frigates received $75 and 6 rations, a Master-Commandant $60 and 5 rations, and Lieutenants Commanding $50 and 4 rations. Princes in the interim had increased 17 per cent overall, but not that these pay rates affected only officers in command, and not subordinates.
After the operations which enriched our naval tradition with the exploits of Decatur and Somers, Congress generously awarded a month’s pay to Preble’s enlisted men, but his officers and midshipmen had to return to their families with the non-negotiable satisfaction of presentation swords hung to their belts. The pay scale was not changed until 1828.
During the War of 1812, some of the officers of the infant Navy benefited greatly from the Prize Law, although it must have been of small comfort to the heirs of James Lawrence to know that his predecessor in the Chesapeake, Captain Evans, had taken the prize Volunteer, valued at $700,000, only one month prior to Lawrence’s fatal meeting with the Shannon. For naval actions alone, exclusive of prizes, Hull and Bainbridge divided $50,000 each with their crews for the victories over the Guerriere and Java; Jacob Jones and the Wasp earned $25,000 for the Frolic; Lawrence received the same for the Peacock; and Elliott got $12,000 for the brig Detroit. Shares for these actions were small, though, compared to the distribution of money after the victories on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain. Quite aside from gold and silver medals and swords, Perry and Macdonough each banked $12,140 (while serving at $720 annual pay), Lieutenants received $2,295, Midshipmen, $811 (annual pay of $228); petty officers got $447, and ordinary seamen $209. Chauncey, who was not involved in either action, was awarded $12,750 for simply being in command of the Great Lakes area. The government’s share of all prize money went into a Navy Pension fund so that, subsequent to 1816, the 50 per cent pay for disabled veterans could be increased up to full pay if the Commissioners of the Fund thought that a case warranted such increase.
These sums look impressive, but what did they mean when blended with the meager pay for a full career? Very little, particularly when it is remembered that relatively few of the officers were lucky enough to take a substantial prize.
In the suppression of piracy in the Caribbean and the slave trade, there was blood to be lost and little prize money to gain—at least not enough to justify the failure to adjust Navy pay to the shifting standard of living. Such prize money as there was sometimes came too late to be of much good. In April, 1823, Captain Thomas Holdup Stevens captured a pirate felucca. Nine years later, Captain Stevens had to search for his officers and crew in order to pay out shares of the magnificent purse of $2,000 awarded for the action. At this rate a prospect of prize money was nothing to offer as collateral for a loan.
In 1827 the Army managed to secure a raise in pay of $10 and 1 ration for its Captains, and more than a year later, in 1828, the Navy obtained the same raise for its Lieutenants.
Then, in 1835,[2] after thirty-six years, the whole system was revised. Actually the Panic of 1818 had served to raise materially the purchasing power of the 1799 dollar by some 26 per cent so that at first glance it would seem that the rates were more than generous, until it is remembered that the nation’s standard of living had been rising correspondingly. Having in this year paid off the public debt, Congress was generously disposed towards the armed services. The Senior Captain—we as yet scorned Admirals—was paid $4,500 per annum, Squadron Captains on foreign duty $4,060, Captains $3,500, Commanders or Masters-Commandant, $2,500 for sea and $2,100 for shore duty, Lieutenants Commanding $1,800, Lieutenants $1,500, Professors of Mathematics $1,200, Passed Midshipmen $750, Midshipmen at sea $400 and ashore $350. With the minor change of raising the Professors to a Lieutenant’s pay (1854) to conform with their permission to mess with the Lieutenants (1842), the rates went without alteration up to the year 1861.[3]
In those two and a half decades the purchasing power of the dollar remained more or less stable, and actually favored the salaried officer by an expansion of some 12 per cent at the outbreak of the Civil War. The year after Gettysburg and Vicksburg, 1864, saw inflation whittle the dollar down to less than half of its value on the eve of war, and only prize money proved the salvation of many officers, even though in 1861 something approximately like the present system of longevity had been fortunately introduced into the pay bill.
The pay grades of 1861 were not too substantial in increase. The Senior Flag Officers were raised to $4,500; Captains commanding Squadrons to $5,000; Captains at sea to $4,200; Captains ashore to $3,600; Commanders ranged from $2,250 to $3,150 based upon sea duty and five year increments of service; Lieutenants commanding at sea moved up to $2,250; Lieutenants on sea duty after seven years of $1,500 began to rise to the figure of $2,250 for 13 years of sea service; Midshipmen at sea were raised to $550, and ashore to $500. Professors of Mathematics were separated from their old running mates, the Lieutenants, and remained at $1,800.
The following year, 1862, four new ranks were introduced: Rear-Admiral, Commodore Lieutenant-Commander, and Ensign.[4] The ranks of the modern Navy were beginning to take shape. Pay was not even slightly improved to compensate for the 12 per cent inflation of prices, which were constantly rising with the tempo of war. Rear-Admirals were paid $5,000 for sea and $4,000 for the shore duties of the former Senior Flag Officers; Commodores received $4,000 and $3,200 respectively for sea and shore duty; Captains surrendered some of their pay to the Commodores, and got $3,500 and $2,800, moving the cut down to the lower grades; Commanders had $2,800 and $2,240; Lieutenant-Commanders, $2,343 and $1,875; Lieutenants, $1,875 and $1,500; Ensigns, $1,200 and $960; and Midshipmen, at sea or ashore, $500.
This pay had to be supplemented by prize money paid either for blockade runners or gallantry in action. By November, 1865, a total of $20,607,586 had been paid for blockade runners alone, and within three years the figure was supplemented by $3,022,041.
Money for individual cases ranged from $1.11 for a sloop after $108.85 had gone to the prize court for “expenses,” to sums like $494,909.29 for the steamer Lady Sterling, shared by two ships, and $510,914.07 for the steamer Memphis taken by one lucky ship.
Among individuals in grade, Admiral S. P. Lee was paid the highest total sum, $109,689.69, while Porter received $91,528.98, DuPont $57,093.25, and Farragut $56,270.67. Commander J. J. Almey got $54,508.71, Lieutenant-Commander William Budd $38,766.24, Lieutenant William Cushing $15,528.76 in excess of the money awarded for sinking the Albemarle, and Acting-Ensign O. E. S. Roberts $8,577.05. These were exceptional cases, and the prize system was generally condemned by officers who had been obliged to spend the war in whole or in part ashore in order to keep the fleet at sea. Agitation began for a schedule of pay which would eliminate the need for prizes to swell an officer’s income.
Money paid for gallantry in action was less generous than the purses for capturing blockade-runners, but was still another lucrative source of income for many naval officers. The celebrated exploit of sinking the ram Albemarle on October 27, 1864, at Plymouth, North Carolina, brought promotion to the officers immediately involved, as well as a first distribution of $80,000 prize money by Congress in 1865. Admiral Porter testified that the ram had cost the Confederate government $1,500,000 and could only have been duplicated in Northern shipyards for $800,000; so, in 1873, Congress voted a second Albemarle award which brought the total to $282,857. Down to the men actually engaged in Cushing’s operation, the money was paid out in accordance with normal prize procedure. Cushing and his crew shared according to rank or rate. Thus, Cushing, who led the attack, got $17,952.58 in 1865 and $38,103.69 in 1873. The lowliest landsman was enriched by a total of $4,019.40, which is surely a fair wage for a night’s work, even by today’s standards of radio stars. There was a great deal of controversy at the time about the Department’s order to depart from the normal prize law, and Cushing was said to be overpaid, if only because his promotion to Lieutenant-Commander was dated back to the day of his adventure. But the awards stood as they had been given.
Pay itself was not raised until 1870,[5] when Admiral was increased by $3,000, Vice-Admirals by $2,000, Rear-Admirals and Commodores by $1,000. Captains went up to $4,500 for sea and $3,500 for shore duty, Commanders to $3,500 and $3,000, Lieutenent-Commanders from $2,400 to $3,000, Lieutenants from $2,000 to $2,600, and Ensigns from $1,000 to $1,400. Professors of Mathematics jumped from $1,800 to $3,500.
These pay grades remained frozen for nearly thirty years until 1899, after the Spanish-American war. Prices, however, steadily went down, and the new raise for the first time promised to bring naval officers fully within the living standards of gentlemen. The 8¢ a mile travel allowance began in 1876, as well as the program of 75 per cent of sea pay for retirement after 40-45 years of service. In 1883, with the purchasing power of the dollar at nearly a third greater than that of the 1870 dollar, the rank of Lieutenant (j.g.) was established in lieu of Master. The framework of ranks was all but complete until the loftier ranks of World War II were created.
The Civil War-won grades of Admiral and Vice-Admiral were vacated by retirement or death in 1890-91, and were permitted to lapse, but the decade was going to produce new heroes worthy of the honor. The Spanish-American War was brief and easily won, and the nation responded to the demonstration of fighting ability by finally establishing the structure of today’s pay schedule.
In 1899 the work was done, save for the grade of Vice-Admiral, which was being debated in Congress. Dewey, as Admiral, received $13,500, Rear-Admirals ranged from $4,675 to $7,500; Captains at sea $3,500, and ashore $2,975; Commanders $3,000 and $2,550; Lieutenant-Commanders $2,500 and $2,125; Lieutenants $1,800 and $1,530; Lieutenants (j.g.) $1,500 and $1,275; and Ensigns $1,400 and $1,190. These figures are smaller than those of 1870, but, for the first time, they represent base pay. Add to these figures 10 per cent for every five years’ service up to 20 years, and also commutation of quarters allowance comparable to that given the Army, and naval officers had attained respectability and a ladder of ranks that promised an encouraging career to a man of ambition. There were improvements to be made, such as the distinction between pay for shore and sea duty, but this would come in time.
Prize money had fulfilled its role during the transition period. $2,000,000 was voted for distribution to the victors over battered Spanish hulks, and prize courts awarded other sums. But the prize law was doomed. Congress took up the matter and in 1900 killed it. The Navy did not weep. As the Army and Navy Register in September, 1898, editorialized:
The attack upon the Navy prize and bounty system made at the close of the War of the Rebellion will be resumed with vigor during the next session of Congress. We believe Navy officers will favor this proposition to abolish this method of reward which is unfair in its usual results. The allotment of prize money shortly to be made by the Treasury Department for the captured vessels of the enemy is destined to exhibit many injustices and inequalities in the latest distribution.
Henceforward, a naval officer afloat or ashore in wartime would be simply doing his duty without either the need or the hope of personal gain. The Navy had matured.
Lieutenant Commander Daly entered the U. S. Coast Guard Reserve in 1941 as an instructor at the Coast Guard Academy. In 1943, after attending fire fighting and damage control schools he was assigned to duty on the U.S.S. Poughkeepsie as First Lieutenant. At present he is an instructor in the Department of English, History, and Government at the U. S. Naval Academy.
[1] The Prize Law of the Navy was adapted from the British. A prize was at first split equally between the captors and the government, though in 1798 Congress amended the law so that a prize belonged wholly to the captors if the enemy armed vessel was equal or superior in strength to the victors. The proceeds of the sale were divided into 20 equal parts, of which the Captain got 3 for himself; 2 were split between the Lieutenants and Master, 2 between the Marine and warrant officers, 3 between the Midshipmen and chief petty officers, 3 among the lesser petty officers, and 7 among the seamen and Marines. If an enemy vessel was sunk in action, the government voted a purse based upon the enemy’s armament. In 1864 Congress tinkered with the law so that officers, in most cases, received even larger shares than before, although such was not the original intent.
[2]In March, 1836, the rank of Master-Commandant was changed to Commander.
[3] There was little prize money during the War with Mexico. The most notable achievement, Commodore Perry’s seizure of Tabasco, netted the captors a bag of 1 barque, 4 schooners, 2 brigs, and 2 schooners of which one was worth $2,000. The proceeds of all very split between the officers and men of 21 vsesels.
[4] Ensigns assumed the duties of former Passed Midshipmen.
[5] Vice-Admirals were created in 1864, and Admiral in 1866.