Why the cook?

Why not use first mate for communication when Captain is sick?

Also on piracy in general; my friend who is a sailor told me how one time his company hired 2 snipers and the crew had to put barbed wire around the ship before entering "dangerous zone" as he said it. He also said to me he managed to see pirates in the distance. On they way back they didn`t hire snipers but used "safe route" and followed some other ship.