] A ship laden with gold, would of course, be every captain's dream, but one rarely realised.

On rare occasions during the 18th century and the Revolutionary wars, the Royal Navy captured homeward bound Spanish treasure ships. One such incident figures in two of the Aubery-Maturin novels. A squadron of, I think, four RN frigates were sent out opn Admiralty orders (i.e. no fleet commander's share) on the eve of war between Britain and Spain to intercept the inbound Spanish treasure convoy. They fought and took 5 Spanish counterparts laden with gold and silver, which ordinarily would have made the captains rich for life and given every ordinary Jack enough to buy a pub. However, the date of the engagement was before the actual declaration of war, and on that technicality, the Admiralty court decided that there was no right to prize money. The British government didn't hand the money back to Spain but kept 100%.