Actual! New! Rules!
Crew quality: As with armies, historical writings on navies focus on the captains and the admirals, but it is the quality of the crew that is vital, yet overlooked. Well-trained rowers are better able to maintain their rhythm and are more efficient with their stroke. Well-trained sailors can read the wind and adjust sails to better take advantage of the varying zephyrs.
Green crew: A green crew can be gathered anywhere, whether it’s on a coast or not. These can be bored farmboys, down-on-their-luck mercenaries, or just people too drunk to avoid the press gang. These are the same sort of folks that become spear-carriers in armies, and are paid 3 gp per month. Ships with green crews suffer a 1 point penalty to initiative, morale, and turn rate. Green crew members have the same availability as light infantry in any city.
Average crew: An average crew is made up of people who are familiar with living on water. They include fishermen and ferrymen, as well as formerly green crew that have survived a voyage or two. They are competent to run a ship with minimal oversight. They are paid 6 gp per month, and a ship with an average crew has no modifier to its stats. Average crew have the same availability as light infantry in coastal cities or heavy infantry in inland cities.
Veteran crew: A veteran crew has been on the water their entire life or been heavily trained for their job. They’ve often served on multiple ship types, or at least multiple ships, and have either sailed widely across the known world or served in at least one military campaign. Veteran crew are paid 9 gp per month, and a ship with a veteran crew gets a 1 point bonus to initiative, morale, and turn rate. Veteran crew members have the same availability as medium cavalry in coastal cities and heavy cavalry in inland cities.
Elite crew: An elite crew cannot be hired. This is a veteran crew that has served on a particular ship for at least six months and in at least one battle. An elite crew, like a veteran crew, is paid 9 gp per month, and gets an additional 1 point bonus to morale.
Hiring and improving a crew: A crew hired on to a ship has the same rating as the majority of its members, and is paid accordingly. Thus, a sailing ship that hires 4 green, 2 average, and 3 veteran crew is considered to have a green crew, and pays them accordingly (and suffers the penalties for a green crew). A green crew becomes average after one month of active travel (time in port does not count). An average crew becomes veteran after three months of active travel, and a veteran crew becomes elite after another six months of active travel.
Replacing crew: As long as at least 50% of the crew remains intact, the crew’s rating does not change. If less than half the original crew constitutes the new crew, treat it as a new hiring, counting the existing crew as their current rating. If a ship with 5 surviving Veteran crew hires 6 Green crew, 3 Average crew, and 2 Veteran crew, it now has 6 Green crew, 3 Average crew, and 7 Veteran crew, and still counts as a Veteran crew.