s cruisers was 37, the commanders being
appointed by the Treasury; and it may be not without interest to
mention the names, tonnage, and guns of some of those which were on
the books for that year. There was the _Vigilant_, which was described
as a yacht, 53 tons, 6 guns, and 13 men; the _Vigilant_ cutter, 82
tons, 8 guns. During the winter season she cruised with ten additional
hands off the coasts of Essex, Kent, and Sussex. There was another,
the _Diligence_, given as of 152 tons; the _Swallow_, 153 tons and 10
guns; the _Lively_, 113 tons, 12 guns, and 30 men. The _Swift_, 52
tons and 8 men, used to cruise between the Downs and the Long Sand (to
the North of the North Foreland at the mouth of the Thames). Some of
the old names under the former dual system are seen to be commemorated
in the _Nimble_ (41 tons, 2 guns, 15 men). Her station was Deal, and
she used to cruise between the Forelands. The _Tartar_ of this period
was of 100 tons, had 10 guns and 23 men. But the _Greyhound_,
probably one of the fastest cruisers, was of 200 tons, mounted 16
guns, and carried 43 men. Her cruising ground was between Beachy Head
and the Start, and her station at Weymouth. A much smaller craft was
the cruiser _Busy_ (46 tons and 11 men). Her cruising was in a much
smaller area--around Plymouth Sound and Cawsand Bay.

Owing to the fact that commanders had been wont too often to run into
port for real or imaginary repairs, the Commissioners decided that in
future, when a cruiser put in, she was to inform the Collector and
Controller of that port by means of her commander, and both to give
his reasons for coming in, and to estimate the length of time he was
likely to remain in port, before his being able to sail again.

With regard to the prize-money which these cruisers were able to make;
before the year 1790 there had been a diversity of practice in the
method of sharing. In allotting rewards to officers for seizing
vessels which afterwards had been taken into the Revenue Service, it
had formerly been the practice to deduct the whole of the charges out
of the officers' moiety of the appraised value. But from April 14,
1790, "for the encouragement of the seizing officers," the charge was
deducted from the total appraised value, and the seizing officers were
to be paid a moiety of the net produce, if any. It had also been the
custom to allow the commanders of Admiralty cruisers permission to use
seized vessels as tenders. But from May