under the United States flag and claiming to be registered there, and also carrying contraband, either of which rendered the ship liable to arrest although not condemnation as a prize. After the Odenwald was stopped, its crew tried to scuttle it and took to the lifeboats. However, a boarding party from the Omaha managed to prevent the Odenwald from sinking and sailed it first to Trinidad, then to Puerto Rico. The United States was not at war with Germany at the time, and after the war, the Odenwald's owners claimed that its seizure was therefore illegal. The Admiralty Court in Puerto Rico, however, ruled in 1947 that the crew's attempt to scuttle the ship, and then abandon it, meant that the Omaha's boarding party and salvage party that jointly brought the Odenwald to port had salvage rights, worth approximately 3 million dollars. It also ruled explicitly that it was not a case of bounty or prize. End of prize money Privateers Privateers were most numerous in European waters during the seventeenth and early eighteenth-century wars, in conflicts involving Britain, France and the Dutch Republic, and outside Europe in the percent in the American War of Independence, the War of 1812 and colonial conflicts in the Caribbean, involving Britain, France and the United States. However, between 1775 and 1815, revenues declined sharply, largely because the probability of seizing a prize ship fell dramatically, partly owing to the increasing numbers of naval vessels competing for captures. As outfitting and manning ships for commerce raiding was expensive, privateering became less financially attractive. The Declaration of Paris 1856, by outlawing privateering by ships of signatory nations, would have made it politically difficult for non-signatories, which included the United States to commission privateers in a future conflict, and the privateering using metal-hulled steamships presented the additional problems of maintaining complex engines, the need for frequent re-coaling and to repair more complex damage than that experienced by wooden-hulled sailing ships. In addition, after 1880, many maritime countries paid subsidies so that liners and other fast merchant vessels were built with a view to conversion into armed merchant cruisers under naval control in wartime, which replaced the need for privateers, and no privateers were commissioned after the American Civil War. References Sources External links Nelson's Navy – Prize Money History of the Royal Navy Prize warfare Naval warfare