The author’s time as Assistant Surgeon aboard USS Prairie in 1898 led to a lifelong devotion to naval history. Maritime rules required ships and cargoes captured by privateers to be certified as lawful in court before they could be auctioned or divided among the privateer’s owners and crew. Allen estimates that about 1,200 such “prizes” were brought to court for judgment during the American War for Independence. In this work, originally published in 1927, he recorded each vessel’s name, type (from tiny sloop to three-masted ship), number of guns, crew size, the captain’s name, and more.

By Gardner Weld Allen, foreword by Len Travers 

Published by American Ancestors in Jan. 2026