User Guide

taking their share of the treasure with them. If you are at sea and have
multiple ships in your fleet, they may steal one of the extra ships. Or
they might run off the next time you go to port.
Morale Boosters
Some ship’s officers and special items help you keep your crew’s
morale high and allow you to lengthen your voyage.
Hunger
Your crew needs to eat. Food is readily available for purchase at a
merchant’s warehouse, or you can take it from a captured vessel. The
Food Indicator on the Navigation screen (see page 19) shows how
many months of food you carry. You can look at the Status Screen to
see your exact Food tonnage.
When you run out of food, your crew will begin to starve. They’ll put
up with this for a short while, but soon their morale will start to plum-
met. If left unchecked, they’ll begin to desert your command.
Once you acquire more food your crew’s morale will stop its decline.
Their morale may rise once the treasure begins flowing in again.
Ship’s Cook: A ship’s cook can stretch the crew’s rations, keeping
them fed on a smaller portion of your Food cargo. Cooks can some-
times be captured from defeated ships.
Storms at Sea
The Caribbean is an unpredictable sea. The sky may be clear and the
winds moderate at one moment, while in the next a sudden tropical
storm might appear, ripping your sails apart. This is especially true
during hurricane season, which runs from around June to November.
White Clouds: White clouds represent small squalls or storms that
are not especially perilous and that are accompanied by strong gusts
of wind. Good sailors can “ride” these clouds to gain a temporary
increase in speed at little risk.
Black Clouds: These represent full-blown tempests. Any ship caught
within a black cloud risks serious damage to both her sails and hull.
These major storms are accompanied by heavy winds. A careful cap-
tain can gain a temporary increase in speed by moving alongside the
clouds but being careful not to blunder inside.

Book Three Sid Meier’s Pirates!
®
Perils of the Sea
Crew Unrest
Pirates are a fickle lot. In the beginning of a voyage they’re fairly easy
to please as long as you keep them fed and keep bringing in the treas-
ure. Sooner or later - depending upon your success and the difficulty
level of the game - they’ll become restless. They’ll start thinking that
it is time for you to go to a city and divide the plunder (see “Dividing
the Plunder” on pages 80 -81), so that they can blow all of their loot
in the nearest tavern.
You can prolong a voyage for quite a long time by keeping the booty
flowing in fast and furious, but no matter how successful you are, the
crew will eventually want to go home. Your first mate will take you
aside and tell you that it might be time to divide the plunder.
If you ignore this advice and continue the voyage, your crew’s morale
will begin to fall. (The Morale Indicator on the Navigation screen dis-
plays the crew’s current morale.) Eventually they'll begin to desert,

Sid Meier’s Pirates!
®
Book Three
The Memoirs of Captain Sydney
I remember once we was fightin’ this French frigate -
heh, running for our lives from this French frigate is more like
the truth. We was in my brig, Happy Reaper, and the winds
was light and steady from the southeast. I had just bought me
a set of those new cotton sails and we was doin' fine - stayin'
ahead and maybe even gainin' a few yards on her, when my
lubber of a helmsman Blind Johnson ran us right into the nas-
tiest storm I've ever seen. We lost over half our sails, and now
the big Frenchman was gainin' on us.
Fortunately, we was able to keep ahead of her for anoth-
er hour, just long enough for the sun to set. By the Grace of
Providence we lost her in the darkness.
What did we do then? Well, first thing I did was to
change course and head for Nevis, where we could get our hull
fixed right and proper. And then I had me kind of a private dis-
cussion with Blind Johnson.
But that’s another story.
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