The Crimson Albatross is not a pirate ship. She's a merchant vessel, civilian owned, bounty-funded, and completely legal under the World Government's laws.
The Albatross is a galleon built to sail the New World, but her crew is quite decidedly not. They're a mishmash group of merchants, refugees, Revolutionaries, deserters and outcasts, the only thing binding them together or even shared in common is the Sanctuary they'd all sought out and held beneath their Captain's wings, and whatever loyalty they held as a result.
The Albatross's crew is a lot of things- But they are not pirates.
Yet.
Only not yet.
They're all aware of it, each in their own individual ways. It's a fate as inevitable and unchanging as the tides themselves, and the only escape from it is to leave the crew entirely. To abandon their home in the galleon's warm hull, and find a future far away from their Captain's destiny.
"I'm going to be the Pirate King."
They've all heard him say it at least once, as much a simple statement of fact as it is a warning. Someday, when the time comes, the Albatross's white flag of a merchant ship will fall to make way for a Jolly Roger, and all who choose to stay by his side will be dragged along for the ride.
He never begrudges a member for leaving, no more than he hesitates to welcome another stray soul in. They're as temporary to him as he is to them, each knowing the other is a mere step along the way, but a friend and an ally in the meantime.
There are exceptions, of course. People who slide into place by his side like they were always meant to be there, and are determined to share in that same destiny. Somehow, their Captain already knows who these people are, or who they will be, at least, and is waiting for them to join him once more.
The Albatross is not a pirate ship.
Not yet.
Not until their Captain finds his nakama once more.