In admiralty law prizes are equipment, vehicles, vessels, and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common use of prize in this sense is the capture of an enemy ship and its cargo as a prize of war. In the past, the capturing force would commonly be allotted a share of the worth of the captured prize. Nations often granted letters of marque that would entitle private parties to capture enemy property, usually ships. Once the ship was secured on friendly territory, it would be made the subject of a prize case: an in rem proceeding in which the court determined the status of the condemned property and the manner in which the property was to be disposed of.
Blanche towing Pique, a French frigate captured as a British prize in 1795
Hugo de Groot, known as Grotius, a 17th-century Dutch academic prodigy known as the Mozart of international law, who wrote the 1604 Commentary on the Law of Prize and Booty
Captain Gideon Olmsted, who at age 20 commandeered the British sloop Active in a mutiny, and spent the next 30 years litigating a claim for prize money
Captain Rogers of the Windsor Castle packet of 150 tons & 28 men capturing the Jeune Richard French privateer of 250 tons & 92 men, 1807
A letter of marque and reprisal was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. After capturing, the privateers could bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to conduct a reprisal and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.
Copy of a letter of marque and reprisal issued by Maurice, Prince of Orange to Captain Johan de Moor from Vlissingen for South America, 1 June 1618, page 1
Drake viewing treasure taken from a Spanish ship, print courtesy New York Public Library
The body of Captain William Kidd hanging in a gibbet over the Thames, the result of confusion over whether Captain Kidd took prizes legally under a letter of marque, or illegally as a pirate.