A British warship makes a capture on the high seas during the Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815. That capture might be an enemy warship or a privateer, an enemy merchant ship or a neutral suspected of running contraband. This is a commonplace incident in many naval novels about the period, as it was in the history of the time itself. But what happened after the capture? What process had to be gone through before the captors saw their prize money?