Prize crew

Aprize crewis the selected members of ashipchosen to take over the operations of a captured ship. Prize crews were required to take their prize to appropriateprize 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 theAge of Sailand up into theAmerican Civil War,capturing enemy ships was quite common. As a result,warshipsoptimistically carried extra crew members for use as prize crews.More recently, as evidenced by results of sea battles duringWorld War IandWorld 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.

Examples

• SeeUSSNightingalefor prize crew and prize court example.
• in 1939,SSCity of Flintwas captured by a German warship in the Atlantic and sailed to Norway. As Norway was neutral, the German prize crew were eventually interned and the vessel returned to her American owners.
• In 1941, a Royal Navy prize crew sailed the captured German U-boatU-570from Iceland to the United Kingdom.
• At the end of World War II,USSBangustselected a prize crew to board the Japanese submarineI-14.
• USSHannaplaced a prize crew on the JapaneseTachibana Maruat the end ofWorld War II.
• U.S. Coast Guardcutters capture vessels during drug interdiction operations, and then bring them to port using prize crews.

See also

• Boarding (attack)
• Prize (law)
• Prize Court
• Prize of war
• Prize money

References

This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

• German prize crew of 22 sailed the ship into Hampton Roads, VirginiaArchived2019-12-21 at theWayback Machine
• She hauled up and the captain sent over a prize crew
• He was a member of the prize crew that brought U-2513 back to the United StatesArchived2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine