Prize money and the Royal Navy's capture economy

Nelson's name could attract experienced volunteers because service under him promised captures as well as victory. A sailor's share from a valuable prize could amount to decades of ordinary pay, making a successful cruise potentially life-changing for someone from a poor or mining family. Frigates offered repeated opportunities against merchant traffic, while ships of the line might share in rarer but larger battle prizes. Captured merchantmen could be sold or ransomed through insurers, turning warfare against commerce into an income stream. The proposed explanation is that this revenue helped the Royal Navy finance ships, crews, payouts, and Admiralty construction beyond the sums visible in government funding. That funding conclusion remains an inference from the accounts, while the wider passage links recruitment directly to the economics of maritime capture.