was furnished by the Crown, no charge being made for the hire.  But her outfit, her future repairs, in addition to the wages and victualling of the crew, and all other expenses, were paid out of the produce of the seizures which these cruisers effected.  After this, if anything remained beyond these deductions, the residue was to be divided between the Crown and the contractor.  Very often, of course, when a fine haul was made of a L1000 worth of cargo, there was quite a nice little sum for both parties to the contract, and a few other, smaller, seizures during the year would make the business quite a profitable undertaking.  But when the amount of seizures was not sufficient to defray the expenses the deficiency was supplied by the contractor and Crown in equal proportions.  That, then, was one of these two subdivisions of contracted cruisers.

But in the second of these the contractor provided the vessel, for which he was paid the sum of 4s. 6d. a ton per lunar month.  It may seem at first that this was poor remuneration, especially when one recollects that to-day, when the Government hires liners from the great steamship companies, the rate of payment is L1 per ton per month.  In the case of even a 10,000-ton liner there is thus a very good payment for about thirty days.  But in the case of a cutter of 100 tons or less, in the eighteenth century, 4s. 6d. per ton may seem very small in comparison.  However, we must bear in mind that although for this money the contractor was to find the outfit of the vessel, and be responsible for all repairs needed, yet the aforesaid contractor might make a good deal more in a lucky year.  It was done on the following basis.  From the produce of the seizures made by this subdivision of cruisers all remaining charges additional to those mentioned above were paid, but the surplus was divided between the Crown and contractor.  Thus the latter stood to gain a large sum if only a moderate number of seizures had been made, and there was, by this method, every incentive for the hired cruisers to use their best endeavours to effect captures.  Still, if there was a deficiency instead of a surplus, this was also shared by both contracting parties.

In the year 1784 there were, reckoning all classes, 44 cruisers employed, and 1041 men as crews.  Of these cruisers the Commander, the Chief Mate and Second Mate, and, in certain vessels, the Deputed Mariners, were all officers of the Customs.  In the case of the first class of cruisers—­those which were on the establishment—­these officers were appointed by the Board pursuant to warrants from the Treasury.  In the case of the second—­those which were hired by contract—­the officers were appointed by the Customs Board.  The captain of the cruiser was paid L50 per annum, the chief mate either L35 or L30, and the crew were each paid L15.  But, as we shall see from a later page, the rate of pay was considerably increased some years afterwards.  The victualling allowance was at the rate of 9d. per diem for each man on board, and an allowance of 1s. each was made by the lunar month for fire and candle.  This last-mentioned allowance was also modified in the course of time.  Some idea as to the seriousness, from a financial point of view, of this cruiser fleet may be gathered from the statement that these 44 vessels cost the Government for a year’s service the sum of L44,355, 16s. 1d.