the most famous, perhaps, sailing power warship of the blockade was the u.s.s. america which a few years before had won a very famous sailing race and won a silver cup that we still compete for called the america's cup. so the america was one of the blockading ships early but, sad to say, wasn't very good at it. yes, sir. >> could you speak to some of the details of the prize money system that would incentivize union navy personnel to try and capture those blockade runners? >> absolutely. prize money had a long history all the way back to sail, back to france deck and before, first to encourage them to enlist them all and then to stay in those boring, tedious jobs off the southern coast. the way it worked was any vessel captured by a united states warship, the value of that vessel sold at auction, the value of its entire

most famous sailing power ship was the u.s.s. america. a very years before had won a famous sailing race and won a silver cup that we still compete for called the america's cup, so the america was one of the blockading ships early, but sad to say, wasn't very good at it. yes, sir. >> could you speak to some of the details of the prize money system that would incentivize union nave navy personnel? >> prize money had a long history back to the age of sail and was a great motivator. the way it worked was that any vessel captured by a united states warship, the value of that vessel sold at auction, the value of its cargo sold at auction, assuming a legitimate prize, the value want to the captain and crew. in late 1862 they kept aside percentage for widows and orphans of sailors lost at sea. as usual, it want to -- any of us who served in the military know how it works. most went to the officers. you know, the captain often got half off the top. then they, the officers themselves, shared another quarter in the war room. and then the final quart