taking control of a captured ship

[FuzzyInch]

I am new to the game and ran into an interesting situation.

 

I was in Montego Bay with my basic cutter and I noticed a traders lynx with contraband sailing into port - i gave chase and attacked.

 

Using grapeshot i quickly reduced crew to 0 and took the ship. 

 

Questions:

1.  I send the lynx to port royal outpost instead of taking control - immediately I had some serious orphaned cargo as my cutter could not carry all the cargo the lynx was holding.  If I would have taken control and sailed it back to Port Royal, what would have happened to my cutter and the copper / gold in its hold?

 

2.  I did not see what was considered "contraband" and thus took only the Iron ore with me before dropping my copper, gold and all the lumber .... How do folks determine what to keep?

 

3.  Is there any way to immediately take control of the lynx and keep the cutter escorting as a fleet - or was this not an option as I did not have enough crew for both boats?

 

4.  Was it a waste for me to kill the crew with grapeshot?  Should I have just boarded?  What happens to the surviving crew of my prey?? Are they incorporated into my service?

 

Thank you in advance.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

1.  If you choose to take control from the battle end screen, you can then send the ship you were sailing back to your outpost.  You can then sail the captured ship somewhere and sell the cargo, or what have you.

2.  Keep it all.  The Contraband mechanic is to provide fun targets for newer players (and some of us older players who can't resist free loot).  

3.  You can't have them both at the same time.  After you've captured the ship (you don't have to hit X, just win the boarding), if you're the last person in the instance, you can then leave and will have the option to dispose of your newly boarded ship as I mentioned in number 1.  If others are in the instance, or there are still enemies, things get a little more complex.

4.  It's not a waste.  The remaining crew are gone.  It's good to soften up a target with grape before boarding, it saves you time and makes the boarding combat more likely to succeed since you outnumber your foe.

[FuzzyInch]

thank you - it would appear that i did make a mistake by sending the trading ships back to my outpost and destroying the cargo...  next time I'll take control of the ship - send my basic cutter home and sell the loot.

[Sir Richard Bolitho]

I had a strange series of incidents "boarding interrupted" (twice) had to re grapple ?

[Mansen]

Speaking of capturing - Is the limitation to cargo looting intentional? That you have to take control of say... a contraband trade ship just to be allowed to bring all of its cargo back? Instead of just teleporting the prize back to an outpost?