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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3410803" data-attributes="member: 4937">Quite.I can't really answer the question without knowing the prevailing social and legal traditions of the world.  But, at least at see, I agree that the person who publically looked the part of Captain would be percieved by everyone on the ship as being the Captain in legal fact, and hense having autocratic authority over the ship for as long as he holds the position.  Now, a ship needs a Captain.  Even Pirates recognized that.  The legal real question here is from what does the Captain derive his authority, and in particular in this case since it is a private vessel that boils down to "Does 'the Captain' own the ship?" Because if the Captain does not own the ship, and this is made clear, then the owner of the ship (in this case, I would presume collectively the PC party), can dispose 'the Captain' pretty much at will (though if 'the Captain' is popular and the party does this in an emergency situation, expect a mutiny from the crew).  I'm not even sure that 'the Captain' is lying to the crew when he acts the part of 'the Captain'.  There isn't very much difference from acting the part of the Captain and actually being the captain provided someone else doesn't have a legal claim on the title.  The only lying going on her might be to the party, who he feels the need to say, "Well, you know, when I say that I'm the Captain, I'm not saying that I'm 'the Captain'.".  Or perhaps that 'the Captain' is lying about also being the owner of the ship?If the legal ownership of the ship isn't clear - that is to say papers are not on board -then I would expect at this point 'the Captain' has a pretty strong circumstantial bonus to a bluff check that the ship is in fact his.   Of course, this might not matter for a hill of beans if he arrives in a foreign port of call and has no documentation to prove he's anything but a pirate...And if 'the Captain' in legal fact has his name on the paper that grants ownership of the vessel, then he's pretty much 'the Captain' in the eyes of the law.If said Captain orders you flogged, the owners could hold an emergency meeting to remove him from the post, but otherwise - assuming the world's 'common law of the sea' recognizes the right of the captain's of vessels to flog the crew (which it might not except in the case of commissed captains aboard military vessels) - then you get flogged.</blockquote>

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