Prize

A Prize is a naval term referring to an enemy ship that has been captured and claimed by a Privateer. On this Wiki, it is used to describe any ship that has successfully been Boarded and added to the Player's Fleet.

Boarding
During Naval Combat, whenever two opposing ships come into physical contact with one another, a Boarding occurs. Unless the enemy ship decides to surrender immediately (due to overwhelming odds against it), a Fencing match breaks out between the crews of both ships.

If the Fencing match is won (or the enemy surrendered beforehand), the player may loot the enemy ship for its Cargo and Gold. Additionally, you get the chance to take the ship as a Prize, adding it to your Fleet.

Taking Prizes
When selecting the option to take a Prize, the ship is immediately added to your Fleet.

You can have no more than 8 ships in your Fleet at any given time. In some games, the option to take a ship as a Prize will be disabled if there are already 8 ships in your Fleet, in others selecting this option will simply scuttle the ship instead. This means that it can sometimes be a good idea to keep only up to 7 ships in your fleet at any time, to avoid having to forgo a Prize.

The new ship is handled like any other ship in your fleet. It will be crewed by your men as appropriate, and you may select it as your flagship at any time you see fit.

Replacing your own ships
Just as you can sell a Prize, you can simply choose to keep it as one of the primary ships in your Fleet. After capturing it, you can choose to sail into a friendly port to repair it at a shipwright's, and (in the later game) install upgrades on it to improve its performance.