To anyone who plays this game long-term, I recommend going to mudandblood.net and heading to the Download page to download the independent .exe of this game.
That way, your save files are locally saved and a bit more secure.
Started in Panama, somehow. Fleet was docked in an uncaptured pirate town with no other towns in range of travel. Only way to earn money was to attack other fleets; every fleet that entered my range of travel was too powerful for my one boat.