On 27 May 1945, "Prinz Eugen" and the light cruiser —the only major German naval vessels to survive the war in serviceable condition—were escorted by the British cruisers and to Wilhelmshaven. On 13 December, "Prinz Eugen" was awarded as a war prize to the United States, which sent the ship to Wesermünde. The United States did not particularly want the cruiser, but it did want to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring it. Her US commander, Captain Arthur H. Graubart, recounted later how the British, Soviet and US representatives in the Control Commission all claimed the ship and how in the end the various large prizes were divided in three lots, "Prinz Eugen" being one of them. The three lots were then drawn lottery style from his hat with the British and Soviet representatives drawing the lots for other ships and Graubart being left with the lot for "Prinz Eugen". The cruiser was commissioned into the US Navy as the unclassified miscellaneous vessel USS "Prinz Eugen" with the hull number IX-300. A composite American-German crew consisting of 574 German officers and sailors, supervised by eight American officers and eighty-five enlisted men under the command of Graubart, then took the ship to Boston, departing on 13 January 1946 and arriving on 22 January.