While at sea, press pause and then turn on caps-lock. Firmly press Ctrl + Z and type any of the following codes (with spaces):

have live - Ship Repaired; Full Crew

expu mne - Extra Experience

deneg day - Extra Money

get me magic - Extra Cannon Damage

make screen shots - No Cannon Damage

now i flying - Ctrl + F to Move Camera

fire from camera - "0" on Numpad to Fire From Camera

teleport - Ctrl + L to Teleport Ship to Camera Location

Hidden Editor
Go into the game directory, and find a file named engine.ini.
Edit it with notepad, changing the first value
from: CORE_MODULE core
to: CORE_MODULE tools_launcher

Avoid monthly crew payment:
Weigh anchor at the end of the month and wait until the first of the next month is past. The crew payment option will not appear.

Hints:
Seek out and hire a first mate as soon as possible. With him onboard, you can take prize ships, which you can use to bolster your fleet or, more important early on, your gold coffers.

If you're fast, you can get in a couple of slashes at the very start of a duel. As soon as the screen starts to appear, hit the strike keys. You should be able to get in two or three hits before your opponent reacts.

When you begin the game, Spain is your enemy and France and England are both neutral. Keep it this way for a while, as things are tough enough with just the Spanish and Pirates to worry about. Get letters of marque from both France and England, and you will be able to get work from both. Make sure not to attack their ships for a while.

Prey upon Pirate and Spanish shipping until you've built up your ship and crew enough to afford making France and/or England your enemy