In enterprises of this character the system of profit-sharing, already noted in connection with whaling, obtained.

The owners took a certain share of each prize, and the remainder was divided among the officers and crew in certain fixed proportions.

How great were the profits accruing to a privateersman in a "run of luck" might be illustrated by two facts set forth by Maclay, whose "History of American Privateers" is the chief authority on the subject.

He asserts that "it frequently happened that even the common sailors received as their share in one cruise, over and above their wages, one thousand dollars--a small fortune in those days for a mariner," and further that "one of the boys in the 'Ranger,' who less than a month before had left a farm, received as his share one ton of sugar, from thirty to forty gallons of fourth-proof Jamaica rum, some twenty pounds of cotton, and about the same quantity of ginger, logwood, and allspice, besides seven hundred dollars in money." To be sure, in order to enjoy gains like these, the men had to risk the perils of battle in addition to the common ones of the sea; but it is a curious fact, recognized in all branches of industry, that the mere peril of a calling does not deter men from following it, and when it promises high profit it is sure to be overcrowded.

In civil life to-day the most dangerous callings are those which are, as a rule, the most ill paid.
Very speedily the privateersmen became the most prosperous and the most picturesque figures along the waterside of the Atlantic cities.