Can you document the leasing of privately owned weapons?
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/militia-sea
Above is one of the first links to pop up on a search of “Privateering”. I didn’t read it yet. But, during the Revolution the American colonies only had a few official ships at the time. Hundreds (thousands?) of private ships with cannon formed our “navy”.
I don’t recall off the top of my head how they were paid. I’m guessing they were “paid” with whatever they could capture from the enemy ship.