Victims of pirates, I'd guess. But you don't see many of those anymore.

Every time I bring up pirate games everyone falls over themselves trying to ask if I've tried sea of thieves.

Yes. I have. No. It's nothing like what I want. I can't even have fun playing it by myself. 0/10 (friends). Would not recommend.

It's fine with a group, but it's not what I want. I want single player with a crew of npcs, and for gits and shiggles you could have multi-player available where the crew of your ship can be replaced by other players, or a ship in your fleet can be controlled by other players.

Like... The ocean is a perfect place to hide loading screens too, because it's relatively flat most of the time, nobody bats an eye if there's fog obscuring the distance, this game could have so many possibilities but it would be SO expensive to make.

Which is why it will never be made.

Nobody is interested in making a good game, they just want to make money.