Prize

Definition

A vessel captured at sea by an armed combatant (naval, privateer, or pirate). The capture was termed a “taking”; the captured vessel itself became the prize; the cargo, the prize cargo. A prize taken by a commissioned privateer required formal condemnation by an admiralty court before it could be legally sold; a prize taken by an uncommissioned pirate did not, but had to be disposed of through irregular channels that left the new owner at risk of subsequent prosecution. The same physical capture was therefore worth considerably more under privateer commission than under uncomplicated piracy.