Sometimes in a tavern, you'll meet another captain. Various random things can happen if you talk to him. In particular, if you're in a friendly port, the conversation may go like this:
Him: "Yes? What do you want, captain?"
You: "It seems you are sitting at our table! That's a problem between us! Are you captain of a ship? We could solve it at sea! How about a challenge?"
Him: "Yes, I'm the captain of a good ship! You can see her in the port and I serve the crown of this colony."
You: "Your governor will see your body hanged on my mast from the shore! I'll await you on the sea, captain! Farewell!"
Him: "I'm a corsair of the king and I accept your challenge mister! You'll regret what you said."
You: "Ha! I'll sink you with pleasure!"
After that, the captain will spawn at sea and attack you. He's under the flag of the nation in whose port he's sitting. That nation is friendly to you, or at least to the flag which you're currently flying. He will attack you when you put to sea. If you continue to fly a friendly flag then you're firing at a friendly ship with all the consequences that entails. If you change to a hostile flag, the fort will join in. If you run away, he'll still be there if you return to the island.
And if this is happening in a town belonging to a nation with whom you have a LoM, you'll lose your LoM if you defeat the ship.
Suggestion: give the character the "SkipRM" attribute so that you can fight the sea duel without involving the fort or your LoM.
(How I found out about this: normally I avoid trouble as there are a couple of branches to the dialog to avoid the duel. This time I'm playing in Russian to investigate a problem reported by two Russian players who find the game crashing whenever they try to put an officer in command of a captured ship. Since I can't understand much Russian, I had no idea what I was saying to the guy in the tavern until I went to sea at Speightstown and found myself being attacked by a British ship while flying a British flag myself. Any player who doesn't spot the phrase "I serve the crown of this colony", or who doesn't fully think through the consequences, is liable to end up in a similar predicament.)
Him: "Yes? What do you want, captain?"
You: "It seems you are sitting at our table! That's a problem between us! Are you captain of a ship? We could solve it at sea! How about a challenge?"
Him: "Yes, I'm the captain of a good ship! You can see her in the port and I serve the crown of this colony."
You: "Your governor will see your body hanged on my mast from the shore! I'll await you on the sea, captain! Farewell!"
Him: "I'm a corsair of the king and I accept your challenge mister! You'll regret what you said."
You: "Ha! I'll sink you with pleasure!"
After that, the captain will spawn at sea and attack you. He's under the flag of the nation in whose port he's sitting. That nation is friendly to you, or at least to the flag which you're currently flying. He will attack you when you put to sea. If you continue to fly a friendly flag then you're firing at a friendly ship with all the consequences that entails. If you change to a hostile flag, the fort will join in. If you run away, he'll still be there if you return to the island.
And if this is happening in a town belonging to a nation with whom you have a LoM, you'll lose your LoM if you defeat the ship.
Suggestion: give the character the "SkipRM" attribute so that you can fight the sea duel without involving the fort or your LoM.
(How I found out about this: normally I avoid trouble as there are a couple of branches to the dialog to avoid the duel. This time I'm playing in Russian to investigate a problem reported by two Russian players who find the game crashing whenever they try to put an officer in command of a captured ship. Since I can't understand much Russian, I had no idea what I was saying to the guy in the tavern until I went to sea at Speightstown and found myself being attacked by a British ship while flying a British flag myself. Any player who doesn't spot the phrase "I serve the crown of this colony", or who doesn't fully think through the consequences, is liable to end up in a similar predicament.)