prize money unlikely. When a policy of commerce raiding was adopted, the major warships were laid up, but many of the smaller warships manned by the officers and men of the French Navy, were leased by the French Crown to contractors, who paid the fitting-out and running costs of these ships, and agreed to pay the Crown one-fifth of the value of all captures. Jenkins (1973), These ships were, however, regarded as privateers, and other privateers were entirely financed by private individuals: in both cases, the privateers operated as their owners and lessees wished, outside if government control. Privateering denied the French Navy of recruits who were experienced seamen, already in short supply in France. Under an ordinance of 1681, privateers, both those using their own ships and those leasing royal ships were required to register with an officer of the Admiralty and make a substantial cautionary deposit. Any prize obtained by a privateer was to be surveyed by representatives of the prize council, who would recover their costs out of the sale proceeds, and retain a tenth of the net proceeds as the Admiralty portion. Officers and men of the French Royal Navy were entitled to share four-fifths of the value of a merchant ship captured, with one tenth of the proceeds retained by the Admiralty and a further tenth for sick and injured seamen. Gun money for an enemy warship or armed privateer captured or destroyed. The Admiralty tenth was sometimes waived when the government wished to encourage commerce raiding, and the distribution of prize money to the officers and crews, and to owners of private ships, was governed by custom, not by any ordinance. The prize council was notorious for the lengthy delays in dealing with cases, during which the prizes and their cargoes deteriorated. Prize money was awarded to French naval personnel up to 1916, after which amounts that would have been paid as prize money were allocated to a fund for naval widows and wounded. Dutch Republic During the Dutch Revolt, William the Silent as sovereign Prince of Orange, was able to issue letters of marque to privateers and, before the end of the 16th century five partly autonomous admiralties had emerged, under the oversight of the states general. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the each of these was responsible for providing warships to the navy of the Dutch Republic and acting as prize