In addition to booty shares, each crew has a Ship Restocking (aka Crew Cut) option. This is a percentage of the total booty that is removed prior to division in order to offset the costs of the rum and cannon balls used throughout the voyage. The captain of the crew sets this amount between 0 and 30% and can change it at any time. At the time of booty divvy the officer or higher ranked pirate on doing the divvy can lower this amount, which will allow more PoE to be divvied to the working pirates. They cannot raise the amount above the set cut during booty divvy.
The amount of the crew cut should cover the restocking fees for a successful pillage. It is also occasionally used to generate extra crew funds to buy more crew ships or shops due to successful pillaging where the crew cut exceeds the restocking fees and is put in a central crew fund. The better the B.navver in conserving cannon balls and short fights, the lower the crew cut can be. However, many crews set the restocking amount dependent on the worst B.navver to ensure that all pillages are successful.
As a jobber, look for a lower crew cut in addition to good booty shares option so that you have access to a greater amount of the booty.
Example[]
Over the course of a pillage, 4500 poe is pillaged. For a crew with a 30% Ship Restocking cut, only 3150 would be available to be divvied and 1350 would be availible to buy replacement rum and shot. However, for a crew with a 20% Ship Restocking cut, 3600 would be availble for divvy and 900 for restocking. As a jobber, it is in your best interested to have the most money available for divvy.
As a b.navver, you need the crew cut to be set higher enough to buy rum and cannon balls. On Midnight, fine rum prices range between 52 and 59 poe per unit, dockside. Small cannon balls range from 17 to 23 poe each at dockside. The longer the pillage the more rum you will need to buy (time based consumption) and the more you shoot at ships (hitting them or not) the more shot you will need to buy. Conserving cannon balls is a good idea as is closing in brigands in a reasonable amount of time to conserve rum.
Historical Notes[]
Prior to the release on 05-25-2005, the crew cut could be set between 0 and 100% and adjusted up or down at the time of booty divvy.