How navies handled captured slave ships before abolition

Before British abolition, how did navies handle captured slave ships and the people carried aboard?

The vessel could be a merchant prize, but the handling of the enslaved people depended on the captain and on where the prize could be landed, with many Royal Navy captains freeing captives.

Captured slave ships are described as merchant prizes, with difficulties arising over where a prize and the people aboard could be landed. In this account, outcomes depended on the captain, and many Royal Navy captains would free the captives. Clarke also questions how securely posthumously published letters establish Nelson's position on slavery, suggesting that their wording may have been altered. That suggestion is a qualification about the evidence, rather than proof that a particular letter was changed.