Miguel had listened to the arguments for this ship being allowed to operate. He had yet to here any Elders make any argument against the ship. He did feel it was sometimes smart to look at the other side of a popular opinion.
"Why have regulations about these things anyway? We all seem to think that this Hermano has shown admirable qualities in the pursuit of his own battleship to command. We seem to feel that these are qualities to be emulated in our battleship Capitan's."
Miguel rose and walked to the bar at the wall, pulling two glasses from the shelf. Grabbing a bottle, he filled both glasses and walked back to the table, placing one of the glasses in front of Ramirez before returning to his seat.
"Lets take a few moments to look at what these qualities this young one is showing us. We definitely see determination, and yes, that quality can be a very good thing, bit I will come back to that one later. What else has he shown us? He has shown a disregard for the proper procedures we in this council set down. Are these procedures perfect? Of course not, but does that give a Corsair the right to ignore them? I think it is a question we must answer.
"Lets look at these other qualities we seem to have decided are so appealing in a captain. Lets look at his bravery, which he has in abundance, he risked all his worldly possessions, and his life to obtain this ship. A good thing or a bad? A harder question than it might seem. In this case, this Capitan won, but he just as easily could have lost, and then what? He would have been destitute, just another Corsair without the means to support or even feed himself. The main point in this mans plan was completely dependent on incredible luck, beating overwhelming odds. Is that really the type of planning we are looking for from our Capitan's, let alone something we should hold up as an example?"
"Let's move to his boldness. His boldness that has him going to outsiders, getting an inferior ship, and risking the lives of hundreds of Corsairs under his command who then are left defending Crete in a ship that stands little chance of standing up to a Outcast or Bounty Hunter battleship. Not to mention, those of us, outside this mans command, who will without hesitation go to the aid of there fellow Corsairs, defending this inferior ship at the cost of their ships and lives. Is this the boldness that we would have other Corsair captains follow?
"I think we need to look for a way to determine if this man is capable of the job, and if he is, we need to put him in a proper combat vessel. Those are my thoughts, take them or leave them as you may."
With that, Miguel emptied his glass in one gulp, and then reached over and took the glass he had put in front of Elder Gonzales, and drank that too.