Prize crew

Prize crew is a term used to indicate a number of crew members of a ship chosen to take over the operations of a captured ship. Prize crews were required to take their prize to appropriate prize courts, which would determine whether the ship's officers and crew had sufficient cause to have the value of the prize awarded to them.

In the Age of Sail and up into the American Civil War, capturing enemy ships was quite common. As a result, warships optimistically carried extra crew members for use as prize crews. More recently, as evidenced by results of sea battles during World War I and World War II, ships generally were sunk, not captured. If, however, a ship is captured, a prize crew would be selected from the winning ship’s complement.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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