Port

An pirate with officer privileges aboard a ship may port when the ship is resting at a league point with an island. Additionally, some voyages will return the vessel to the nearest port on failure. These include non-sinking flotillas, and non-sinking blockades. Furthermore, ships left at sea will port automatically after a period of time, a behaviour known as "autoporting".

When a ship ports, its might rating disappears and any booty aboard may be divided. Furthermore, those aboard the ship may step off onto the island it is ported at and crew members on the island may board the ship. Officers may also replenish the ship's supplies of rum and cannon balls while ported, known as restocking.

Autoporting
Ships abandoned at sea will return to the most recently visited port (or the destination port, if the ships are a league or less from the destination) after 15 minutes with no pirates aboard. During this time, if they are boarded the count will reset. If the ships are not left at a league point, brigands, barbarians and player ships may engage them in a sea battle before it ports. The ship is reset upon porting.

All booty aboard an abandoned ship is lost. The hold and coffers are unaffected, although some may be lost to attacking ships.

Restrictions on porting
A ship cannot port at an island whose governing flag is at war with, or declaring war against, the flag that the ship is sailing under. The following message is displayed when such a ship attempts to port:

This also applies during blockades - a ship is unable to enter the "island-side" safe zone, and the following message is displayed:

Ships wishing to port at a currently blockaded island must navigate through the blockade board to do so. (However, an event blockade is bypassed by default, but is accessed via the "Join Event" button from both ocean-side and island-side.

A common tactic to avoid embargoes on islands is to swap ship deeds to a flag that is not at war with the governing flag of the island.

Ship reset
Any damage and/or bilge left on a ship will be reset, and all cannons unloaded, after 15-30 minutes of sitting in a port with no one aboard. The count will restart each time a pirate steps on the ship during this window.